Something’s afoul with missing dogs in Ayia Napa

By Angelos Anastasiou

LAST Monday, dog-trainer Dora Kyriacou was in the yard of her home in Cavo Greco, Famagusta, playing with her dogs, when two of them jumped the fence into the adjacent fields. She heard them ruffling in the bushes as they had done so many times in the past, and she was soon after them along with three more of her dogs.

When she caught up with them, she thought it was a wonderful opportunity to take them for a walk. The five dogs, including mother and daughter Benda, 7, and Lily, 4, climbed a nearby hill, wagging their tails and enjoying the open space.

But when Kyriacou called them back, only three returned.

Benda and Lily had climbed the hill many times in the past and are well aware of the terrain surrounding Kyriacou’s house, so it appears unlikely that the dogs lost their way.

The two German wirehaired pointers (Drathaars) have yet to be found, and their vanishing remains a mystery.

Since Monday, Kyriacou and friends have unleashed an all-out search effort to find the dogs.

“I can’t say I know anyone who loves their dogs as much as her,” a person close to Kyriacou told the Cyprus Mail on Friday. “She’s alerted the neighbourhood, bus drivers, taxi drivers, the police, vet services.”

Although there is no evidence of theft, the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the dogs remains.

“It’s just weird that they would get lost – they know the area, they’ve returned from similar walks time and again in the past, and they’re house-trained,” Kyriacou’s friend said. “I mean, wherever they are, they’ll look for shelter, they’ll approach humans, they’re not going to hide in the fields somewhere.”

Kyriacou is offering a €2,000 reward for the safe return of the dogs, and urges anyone who has any information on their whereabouts to contact the owner on 99662571 or 99627035.

According to the fliers prepared by Kyriacou as part of the search, the dogs are “tattooed, microchipped and spayed”.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.