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Orlando family pleads for return of 6-year-old girl's emotional support dog

By Karen Parks, WFTV.com
By Karen Parks, WFTV.com
A family who moved to Orlando from New York just five days ago is asking for help finding their 8-year-old Yorkshire terrier who went missing when their SUV was broken into at softball game Monday.
Doreen Carranza explained that her 6-year-old daughter, Nivea, relies on Leo and has had trouble sleeping since he’s been gone.
“He’s 8 years old (and) he’s been with the family since he was 2 months old,” Carranza said. “He is also an emotional support system for my daughter, who has alopecia.”
Carranza had taken Leo to a softball game at Lake Fairview Park in Orlando, but wasn’t sure if he would be allowed in.
So, she left him in her SUV for about 15 minutes while she went to ask, but when she went back to her vehicle, the driver-side window was broken and her purse was gone.
Leo was also missing.
At first, Carranza thought he might have jumped out the broken window, but after searching the park that night and then the next day, she started to worry that Leo had been stolen along with her purse.
She filed a police report, but she doesn’t care about getting her purse back.
“The credit cards are replaceable, money is replaceable, my dog isn’t,” she said. “Who has the heard to do that? You see a child seat there (so) you are taking a child’s dog as well.”
She pleaded with whoever may have Leo to bring him back.
If he was stolen and sold to someone, she even offered to pay whatever he cost to get him back.
Leo has epilepsy and needs medication, so Carranza said time might be of the essence.
For Nivea, she said there was only one present on her Christmas list.
“Please come back Leo,” she said.

Cox Media Group

Karen Parks

Karen Parks, WFTV.com

Karen Parks is a reporter at WFTV.

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