To the Editor:

No words can begin to express our gratitude of the outpouring help and concern for our missing horse, Deuce.  It was amazing to see a community come together and help search for him for three full days!

We met up with so many people in cars, on foot, on horseback and ATVs, people we’ve never met (some people left work early to join the search).  Truly every car we met up with was on the lookout.  Everyone was extremely helpful and so concerned for his safety. We’d like to thank our local law enforcement, local postal drivers, UPS, and FedEx for keeping an eye out.

We learned Facebook can be a valuable tool to get a message out fast.  Steve Caporizzo’s Pet Connection FB page had over 100,000 views!  Capital District HorseSource also had a large number of views.  Numerous news channels and reporters reached out and also posted our story.  The New York State Horse Council reached out.  Pet locator Shirley Merrill tried to assist.  Dave Harrington with Specialized K-9 Detection Services out of Glenmont heard the news and rushed right over to join in the search with his Labrador retriever, Willy; they donated hours of their time.  There were talks of Saratoga Skydiving willing to search by air.

So many of our close friends gave up days of their lives to help:  Mark and Rose Wehneu; Renee Calkins; Marc Hockenberry; Linda and Bella Crusan; Heather and Tom Mallette; Pam and Jim Shannon; Matt Vedder; Neil and Rachael Farnum; Wayne Thompson; Dani Vanderveer-Keller; Darleen Pettite; Sallie Poltynski; Stephanie Burroughs; George Pratt; and Kelly Greene Tymchyn and her daughters who rode out of his farm and searched for hours; our son-in-law, Eric Messineo, and his parents, Pat and Patty Messineo, who took our grandchildren so our daughter Sandy could assist, just to name a few.

And ultimately Scott Carroll from Altamont who saw the FB story and took an ATV ride on a “hunch” he might find him!  It’s amazing how little acts of kindness go such a long way. 

We’d also like to thank Renee Calkins for setting up a Go Fund to help assist.  We named the fund “Deuce’s Pay It Forward” fund.  All donations will go directly to Steve Caporizzo’s Pet Connection and the Specialized K-9 Unit.  We’d like to see something good come out of all this, let’s help animals in need and the training of dogs to help search for lost animals.  To donate, go to: https://www.gofundme.com/HelpDeuce.

And finally, we’d like to thank Alex Sondhof, DVM for rushing to our farm to examine Deuce and Upstate Equine Medical Center in Schuylerville for nursing Deuce back to health!  Deuce is a part of our family and we thank you all immensely for bringing him home!

John and Debbie Hickey

Kytewind Farm

Duanesburg

Editor’s note: See related story.