His dog went missing. Then he found a tragic note and her collar in his mailbox.

Alyssa Newton | Sun Herald

Chad Stricker spent six days searching for his 10-month-old wolfdog, Nymeria, in the Ozona community in rural Pearl River County, the Sun Herald reported.

Nymeria had gone missing after her usual night roaming of Stricker’s 10-acre property with her older brother, Ghost.

Ghost, a white wolf-hybrid dog, came back early Saturday night without his sister.

“I looked every day, multiple times a day,” Sticker said. “There were some days I came home early from work to look. I posted on social media, asked neighbors and drove up and down roads.”

Although Nymeria was around 60 pounds before even turning a year old, Stricker said that she was one of the sweetest, most gentle dog he’s ever owned.

“There’s not a mean bone in her body,” Stricker said. “She was good with other dogs, good with kids. She was super lovable.”

Katharine Graversen Murray, Stricker’s girlfriend, added that Nymeria only had one eye after a stray dog punctured one of her eyes with a tooth when she was a puppy. As she grew older, she still played and shared food with that same stray dog.

To take extra precautions in case she ever did get out, Nymeria had a large yellow collar with a over-sized tag that showed her photo, Stricker’s address and number and even a description of her personality for others to read.

“We did that so if anyone ever saw her, there’s no mistaking she was someone’s dog,” Stricker said.

An anonymous note

On Dec. 12, Sticker was getting ready to go out to dinner with his daughter when his search came to an end. He didn’t find Nymeria at the end of his driveway, but instead he found her collar and a note typed and sealed in a plastic bag in his mailbox.

“I’m sorry to inform you that your dog was shot and killed Saturday night while digging through my garbage,” the anonymous note said. “It did not suffer and I did not take pleasure in killing It. There Is a county leash law which you should abide by so that I do not have to kill any more of your pets.”

Stricker said that he was in disbelief when he first read the letter.

“He had to pull over for 10 minutes,” Murray said.

When he read the letter out loud again to the Sun Herald, tears returned to his eyes.

“I was sick to my stomach,” Stricker said. “To think that someone killed her while we had been out looking for her, for digging In the garbage ... An animal is not worth more than your trash or the time to make a phone call?”

Stricker said Nymeria’s body wasn’t returned. He said would have wanted to bury her.

“I’ve been looking for buzzards and vultures. I’ve asked on social media for whoever did It to leave her body at my driveway or even tell me where they dumped it,” Stricker said. “We don’t know what happened to her so there’s no closure.”

‘There's nothing I can do,’ owner says

Sticker said he reached out to someone he knew at the sheriff’s department to see if there was anything he could do.

“Technically there’s nothing I can do,” Stricker said. “It was on the other person’s property and landowners are protected In that matter. You feel bad for the animals. If It had been a chihuahua, would It have been shot? There should be laws to protect animal owners. No animal should be shot for going through someone’s trash.”

The Pearl River County leash law requires all animals to be behind a fence or restrained with a leash, even if owners are not within city limits.

Elizabeth Treadaway, the shelter manager Pearl River County SPCA, said that incidents like this are something that’s common out in more rural, county areas.

“Unfortunately we see that a lot,” Treadaway said. “This dog lost its life over an invisible line it can’t see. As soon as an animal goes onto someone else’s property, that leash law goes into effect. But just because it’s law, doesn’t make it right what this person did.”

Treadaway heard Stricker’s story for the first time from the Sun Herald. She said it was disheartening.

“I understand that the dog going through that person’s trash was probably frustrating, but there were so many other options that could have been taken. They could have called animal control or even called us. We house strays and would have held her for the owner. Then they could have had a discussion and resolved it.”

Treadaway said there isn’t much Stricker can do since he doesn’t have Nymeria’s body or any witnesses to the incident. She said it’s already difficult to prosecute animal cruelty in Mississippi for even the most extreme cases.

“There are almost no animal cruelty laws,” she said. “Even with the law the president recently signed, there’s not much control officers can do. It’s honestly hard to get judges to enforce the law. If there’s no punishment, there’s no way to discourage that behavior.”

Stricker believes there should be more to protect the animals in cases similar to the death of Nymeria.

“Somebody should change that, someone should protect the animals,” she said. “That’s unless an animal is threatening or aggressive or something to justify harming an animal.”

The Pearl River County Sheriff’s Office and animal control did not respond to Sun Herald’s requests for comment for this story.

Viral Facebook post

Stricker posted the note and Nymeria’s collar on Facebook the night he found them in his mailbox.

"You were more than garbage to me, baby girl,” he wrote. “To think Nymeria was worth less than garbage or a damn phone call.”

Nearly a week later, his post has been shared more than 3,000 times. Stricker said many of the shares came from animal shelters. Although there are negative comments on his post, he says the good outweighs the bad.

"It’s been shared a lot and most of the comments are supportive,” Stricker said. “I appreciate people sharing Nymeria’s story so people know what happened to her."

‘Not just an animal’

For Stricker, Nymeria wasn’t just an animal. She was part of his family and one of his children.

"They’re our fur-children," Stricker said. “Dogs, cats, birds and turtles, for those who have them in their homes, talk to them feed them... they’re part of the family.”

One member of the family still isn’t the same without her.

"Ghost still looks for her,” Stricker said. “He’ll go and sit and look down the road waiting for her to come back, or he’ll sit under the power lines and wait in the back field. I see him throughout the day pacing back and forth, waiting on her.”

Stricker decided to put Nymeria’s collar on Ghost to have some of her scent to comfort him.

"Hopefully she will slowly fade and won’t be such a drastic ending for him.”

Stricker said that in the end, all he wants is an explanation and to know what happened to his dog.

"I just want to talk, I want to know what happened and where she is,” he said. “Just to know why. He dumped the collar and the letter, I wish they would have left the body to give me some kind of closure.”