Dog's mysterious disappearance brings heartache

Commuters along Beach Drive in Northeast St. Petersburg saw this on their way home Tuesday. Pooh Bear has been missing since April 7. [ANNE GLOVER | tampabay.com]

Where did Pooh Bear go?

A nearly month-long mystery of a missing Bichon Frise took a new twist Tuesday.

Residents of the Old Northeast neighborhood in  St. Petersburg, used to seeing posters and fliers for the missing tiny dog for the past several weeks, were greeted with  huge posters offering a $5,000 reward as they made their commute home Tuesday along Beach Drive and other venues near where the dog went missing.

Patricia Bonati, the dog's owner, has enlisted a huge support network to find the dog, which she hopes has been picked up by someone who happened to take advantage of an unguarded moment.

Bonati, who lives at 17th Avenue and Beach Drive, is widely known in the Old Northeast as the poodle lady who leads a herd of the dogs on walks through the neighborhood alleys and parks. She is a foster parent to many dogs through her work with a poodle rescue network. She was on such a walk when Pooh Bear, who is 15 and on various medications for a litany of medical maladies, disappeared.

"It's like the Earth swallowed my dog," Bonati said. She told the story of what happened:

She was out walking her dogs on April 7, around 5:45 a.m. They were at the water fountain near the Vinoy Basin, and she was cleaning up after one of her other dogs as Pooh Bear sniffed nearby bushes. When she went to corral the dogs and resume the walk, Pooh Bear was nowhere to be found.

She immediately searched near the sea wall, all the while knowing that Pooh Bear wouldn't like going across the wet grass toward the water. No splashing and no dog.

Morning exercisers familiar with her and her herd immediately set off in search of the dog, she said. But there was no sign of her elderly companion, whom she had raised since she was a puppy.

And so it came that she enlisted everyone she could to help, eventually ending up with more than 600 fliers posted and even hiring a pet detective she read about in the Washington Post to come down and help her find her beloved Pooh.

Now all she can do is offer the large reward and hope someone comes forward.

"I'm frantic," she said. "I don't have children. These are my children."

She explains how she'll pay the reward, no questions asked, if someone shows up with Pooh Bear. She explains how much it would mean to her, this little white ball of fur that she's raised since she was a puppy.

"I never thought she would die anyplace else but in my arms."

Anyone with information should call 813-892-1865.

Anne Glover, tampabay.com