Cooper Lost and Found

Cooper sightings came fast and furious after the German short-haired pointer lit out from his boarder's care on Thursday.

Word of his whereabouts flashed on Facebooks and phones, and the owners' friends and family scoured the North Shore landscape for the black dog.

Meanwhile, his owners, Nicole and Nino Sorrentino of Peabody, scrambled to find an early flight home from the Caribbean, cutting short their vacation and beach time to join the search party on beaches in Swampscott.

Soon, joined the effort.

In the end, police located the scared pup on Burrill Street in Swampscott and he was captured, said searcher and friend Sarah Gagnon.

Sarah is a bit foggy on the final chapter in the search for the elusive pointer.

A posting on Facebook states a motorcyclist played a crucial role in collaring Cooper, she said.

In any event she found out about 5:30 pm Friday that he was OK.

She and others had spent much of the past 24 hours thinking about and looking for the wayward animal.

Sarah first met Cooper a while back.

It was at Leslie's Retreat Dog Park in Salem that she and her dog met the Sorrentinos and Cooper. The crew became friends.

So when Sarah learned on Thursday afternoon from Nicole's brothers that Cooper had ran away, Sarah and her husband, Andrew, helped close the gap on Cooper's trail.

Cooper had been left in the care of a dog boarder when the Sorentinos went on vacation, and he went AWOL on a visit to the Lynn Woods.

The Gagnons and others searched for the dog, and read and posted Cooper sightings on Facebook pages including the Leslie's Retreat page.

Cooper ran away from Lynn Woods Reservation off Route 129 about 4 pm Thursday. 

Ten to 15 people looked for him in the Lynn Woods until midnight when they decided it was fruitless to seek a scared dark dog in the dark.

The Gagnons got up early Friday and drove to the Stone Tower area of Lynn Woods about 6:30 am.

They then saw in a Facebook comment that Cooper had been sighted along Humphrey Street in downtown Swampscott, some five miles away from the woods, and they drove there.

The Gagnons covered the waterfront knowing it was familiar to Cooper since Nicole would walk him on the beaches.

About 8 am Sarah thought she saw Cooper in the distance at Preston Beach. But as she tried to get closer the dog vanished.

By 9 am it was time for work, and Sarah followed the events on social media. Word spread fast.

Patch pages and Weight Watchers North Shore pages were part of the Cooper network, she said.

"It was amazing to see the power of social media," she said. There were about 50 comments and perhaps hundreds, maybe thousands, of people watching the story.

Around 3 pm she learned that Cooper had been spotted by the Tides Restaurant in Nahant.

Sarah surmised that Cooper was running the beaches trying to pick up the scent of Nicole. After all, these were the same beaches they would walk.

About 5:30 pm Sarah Gagnon heard what she was hoping to hear: Cooper was found.

Swampscott police had been on the lookout for the dog and had narrowed down his location. She was grateful.

"A big thank you to all those police officers who were on the lookout and trying to capture him and bring him home," she said.

The Sorrentinos are due home in short order.

Before Cooper was found they made arrangements to fly back early to try to find him.

Before long they will find him at their house.