
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 10, 1995                   TAG: 9507100146
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

MAN SEEKS HIGH AND LOW FOR LOST DOG

The despondent owner of a lost dog says he will do ``whatever it takes'' to get his pet back. So far, that has meant hundreds of dollars in fliers, newspaper advertisements and even an airplane rental.

``I've went and looked and searched and hollered and I haven't come up with anything,'' Donald Irby said in a telephone interview Sunday, his voice choked with emotion. ``I don't even have an adjective for the way I feel.''

Irby, 36, said Sheba, a yellowish-brown Labrador retriever mix, disappeared at noon on July 4 from his Lynchburg home after the motorcycle Irby was repairing backfired.

``She's gun-shy,'' he said.

Irby began scouring the neighborhood that day. His fiancee and her stepchildren, ages 11 and 8, also searched, but they turned up nothing. Irby slept with the basement door open, hoping the arthritis-stricken dog would return.

The next day, Irby went to work at the transmission repair shop he manages. But he couldn't concentrate, and decided to hire a pilot from a private airplane company in hopes of spotting the 55-pound dog by air. They flew low over a cow pasture where he thought Sheba might have gone, but the $30 mission was unfruitful.

On Friday, he paid $480 for a display ad that ran in the Saturday and Sunday editions of the News & Advance of Lynchburg. He said the ad would run again this week. He also has spent about $100 on fliers, complete with a color picture of Sheba and the words ``Large Reward.''

``A lot of people have called just to express their concern and love,'' he said. ``I go follow up every lead.''

Irby acquired Sheba more than 15 years ago when the puppy was stricken with pneumonia and on the brink of death. Since that time, they've become nearly inseparable.

``Just about everybody in Lynchburg knows me and that dog,'' said Irby. He takes her to fast food restaurants and they've gone on a road trip together to Daytona Beach, Fla.

Irby says his biggest fear is that Sheba is hurt and can't get up.

``I've never had any children of my own so I don't know what my love would be for a child, but it couldn't be any stronger than it is for her,'' he said.

by CNB