My long time dog, Fawn, died in January. My family and I have looked around since then and found the perfect little girl collie (sheltie), Dixie, yesterday at Salem's Northeast Animal Shelter.

She is tan with white markings on her nose and paws. A few people think she looked like a little fox. She's just under 1 year old and is only 17 pounds and barely reaches the height of my knee.

And then, a few hours after getting her home, my dad left the door to the kitchen open and she took off into the woods.

I tried running after her but she is fast and small and I couldn't keep up or fit through the brush.

She's very shy and since she was only with us for a few hours so doesn't respond to us calling her outside… she doesn't even know her name yet (the shelter named her, we didn't). She's sweet as sugar and doesn't make a noise, but timid and prefers hiding somewhere outdoors to being with people. Before we adopted her and before she was at the shelter, her original owners left her outside in a pen all day and night which is why she's confused about indoor spaces (such as houses and cars).

She was last seen at the Sunshine Avenue entrance to the town reservoir off Oak Street in Randolph. She was running further down Oak Street sticking to the shore of the pond, towards Braintree.

She's wearing a green collar with a brown leather leash still attached.

If you know ANYONE who lives in the area, please tell them to keep an eye out and contact me if they see her!

[link] OR e-mail me :    Lazuli_7 AT yahoo DOT com  (replace the AT with @, Dot with . )