A month-long, 9,000-mile search has one Houma couple waking each day to look for their lost dogs.
“Since the 15th, we get up every morning, probably about 6:30 a.m. to 7 a.m., and we start driving, we look, we knock on doors,” Mariah Smith said. “We posted about 1,400 flyers up, and we’ve knocked on probably as many doors as we can.”
Smith, 29, and her boyfriend, Cody Ivers, 31, have been searching all over for their two dogs, which have been missing since Jan. 15. The couple is unable to have children, and their five dogs and one cat are the closest thing they have to children of their own. Yara, a 9-year-old Akita, and Stella, a 4-year-old Australian Shepherd, were both rescue animals that the two took in from the shelter.
“We don’t have kids,” Smith said. “We can’t have kids. We actually have five pups total, and we treat them just like our kids. They’re our babies. Stella and Yara have been with me through all my major moves in life.”
The dogs follow Smith anytime she’s outside, and while she and Ivers were wrapping the pipes ahead of January’s freeze, Yara took off after something, and Stella followed suit. Smith and Ivers chased after their furry friends and lost sight of them at the intersection of Birch and Wright avenues in downtown Houma.
“Stella usually chases after to help, like as in, ‘Hey come back!,” Smith said. “We could see them turn on to Birch (Avenue), and then we turned on to Birch (Avenue) as well, and there was just no sight of them after that. So I’m assuming they either cut through a backyard or something.”
Since then, Smith has driven to New Orleans, Thibodaux, Breaux Bridge, Lockport and more, totaling up to 8,900 miles, searching for the lost dogs. She posts the flyers wherever she can, and two floats that rolled in Mardi Gras day parades had missing dog posters on the sides to help get the message out. The posters say Jan. 16, but Smith said that was a typo that she didn’t have time to correct.
Tanya Davis, 39, of Houma said she has dogs too, and when she heard about Smith’s situation, she just wanted to help out. She rides on the Krewe of Kajuns, Krazy Kajun Misfits float and saw the large space on the front as an opportunity to help out.
“I have four dogs of my own, and so even when our dogs go missing for a couple of hours, you know I know how distraught somebody can get,” Davis said. “So to know that those are her babies, I wanted to make sure that I helped get their faces out to the public as much as I could.”
The two dogs have dark grey reflective collars with name tags, Apple air tags, and tiny canine driver’s licenses attached to them. Smith has tried to locate the dogs with the Apple air tags, but the tags only work within 1,000 feet, and the batteries are very low. Both dogs are also chipped, but only a vet can id the dogs with the chips.
As for distinguishing features, Stella has no tail and, according to Smith, has a very distinctive fur pattern. Yara has a curly tail that will not uncurl on its own, she has a pink and purple tongue, and is nearly mute. Smith has only heard the 9-year-old bark maybe three times.
Smith said she is offering a $1,000 reward for each dog if anyone helps with information to find the dogs, or returns them.
