A San Carlos woman is desperately searching for her service dog in training after she said burglars broke into her home and stole him.
"Max was our family," said Linda Duncan-Raab.
To Duncan-Raab, Max was no ordinary dog. She relied on him because of a bad back.
"He could actually pick up my shoes, which was awesome," said Duncan-Raab. "And if I dropped my keys during the day, he'd come up and pick them up and give them to me. It's really hard to find a dog that naturally does those things."
Last Friday night, she left her house to pick up her son. When she returned, she noticed the front screen door was wide open and the door cracked.
"It was slightly open; you can put your fingertips in the doorframe," said Duncan-Raab.
"At first, because I have 10 children, I thought one of my kids came over. It wasn't a big deal," she added.
She didn't think anything of it until she noticed all her prescription medicine was gone, along with some jewelry.
"By this point, I'm calling the police. Something's not quite right," Duncan-Raab said.
She then noticed Max was nowhere to be found.
"He was there, 24 hours; he would go with us when we'd go places, everything," said Duncan-Raab.
Max is a smooth fox terrier mixed with Shih Tzu. The family got him last November, and they grew attached to him right away.
"I'm hoping in my heart that Max got out the front door and someone found him to be lovable and took him in and that they will call us," Duncan-Raab said.
Until then, they haven't removed anything of Max's because they're holding on to hope he'll return one day soon.
"It's a grief, you know, you're missing a part of your family," said Duncan-Raab.
The family says they've called a few shelters around town and checked a couple of websites for lost dogs. So far, they've had no luck.
Max did have a microchip so they're hoping whoever finds him will take him in to a place that can track down the family.
