She helps her owner live with cancer. Now she’s missing in Central Kentucky.

A Fourth of July barbecue in Paris turned into a search party when a beloved dog went missing. She hasn’t been found.

Diana and Robert Auntenrieth drove from Texas to Kentucky to celebrate the holiday with family, bringing along their 5-year-old white poodle mix, Teela. She ran when a neighbor set off a particularly loud round of fireworks on July 4.

Diana said the ground shook from the fireworks, which she described as “mortar rounds going off.” The Auntenrieths realized Teela was nowhere to be found; Diana believes the dog was scared by the noise.

“We all took off in the middle of all these fireworks and these mortar rounds going off, trying to find her,” Diana said. “And she’s gone. She’s gone, and it’s really tough.”

Diana said her husband, Robert, is particularly close with Teela. Ten years ago, Robert was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Myelodysplastic Syndrome, which negatively affects how many healthy blood cells the body can make.

He has since had a blood marrow transplant, and Diana said that Teela had been one of his biggest “caregivers,” motivating him to get up and go walking.

“She basically breathed new life into him,” Diana said. “She really inspired him to live.”

Diana said that she and her husband adopted their dog around five years ago from a breeder in Bardstown. “She’s a Kentucky girl,” Diana said of Teela.

The Auntenrieths are not giving up hope for finding Teela. Diana said that they had hired a professional dog catcher and bloodhounds to try and find her. “We’re just doing everything possible to find her because she’s critical to my husband’s health and to my health,” Diana said. “Her love is medicine.”

“You always hear about stories of people losing their dogs, and you never really understand that, but now I do,” she said. “It’s so painful. It’s like losing a child.”

Diana said Teela has a microchip and was last seen wearing a purple collar. The Auntenrieths have formed a Facebook group dedicated to finding their beloved pet where community members can report any sightings.

This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 11:39 AM.