By Moses Leos III

A simple theft of two dogs in Kyle might not be unusual for some people.

But the theft from a local caterer of his two trained dogs has left him without his lifeline, causing him to be hospitalized several times since they were stolen last month.

Pierre Blanchard said his two dogs, King and Lana were more than just family pets. They were instead his lifelines, as the dogs warned Blanchard, who suffers from Type-1 diabetes, of his fluctuating blood sugar due to his disease.  

“I just want my dogs back. They’re my babies and they’re my children. They are my heart and my everything,” Blanchard said. “I never knew I’d love them this much until this happened.”

Blanchard knew how special his first dog was soon after he brought him home from the San Marcos Animal Shelter on May 6.

Blanchard noticed that King, his American Staffordshire terrier, used his senses to know something was amiss with his owner.

“He used his nose to smell something. I checked my blood sugar, and it was 300 [milligrams/deciliter (mg/dL)]. I was like, ‘he knows,’” Blanchard said.

There were other traits that Blanchard noticed that led him to believe King could sense when his blood sugar was too low or too high.

Blanchard said when his blood sugar was “normal,” which ranged from 80 to 160 mg/DL, King was a “normal dog.” But his dog acted differently when his blood sugar changed.

“When he starts to sniff me, that’s when I start having cold sweats, and I feel his breath going on me. I know right away I need to get something to eat,” Blanchard said.

When his blood sugar was high, Blanchard said King would lick his head. His family assumes that’s when his body excretes sugar from his sweat. When his blood sugar was too low, Blanchard said King would tap his leg.

“When he does, it’s like, he knows something is not right,” he said.

Soon Blanchard and his family began to train King, who was not a dedicated service dog. The process took only two weeks, when it normally takes up to nine months.

“He was the most unique dog,” Blanchard said.

On Dec. 5, the Blanchard family adopted Lana, their half-American terrier and Dalmatian mix. And like King, the family began to train Lana how to recognize issues with Blanchard.

Around 11 a.m. on Dec. 15, though, Blanchard’s life changed.

Blanchard said he put King and Lana out into his gated yard of his home in the Spring Branch neighborhood when he went to pick up another pet at a veterinarian.

He returned home eight minutes later to find the gate, which has two locks on it, was open. Both of his dogs were gone.

“I didn’t want to believe the gate was open,” Blanchard said. “Maybe there was someone at home and they let them back in? But there was no one home.”

What soon followed was a frantic 45-minute search that encompassed the Spring Branch, Silverado and Plum Creek neighborhoods. He then searched in the Hometown Kyle and Kyle Crossing neighborhoods.

His search has proven fruitless. Blanchard was adamant that his dogs were taken from the yard based on the way his gate was open. He said even a Kyle Police officer who was at his residence was “in awe of what happened.”

Blanchard then took to the streets and social media in search of his lost dogs. He has passed out flyers in several neighborhoods. Blanchard also gained access to several closed neighborhood Facebook pages, where he has since spread the word.

Hays County Pct. 2 Justice of the Peace Beth Smith has also aided him in searching for the dogs. Blanchard has also filed a report with the Kyle Police Department. 

But Blanchard said his dogs have not been located, despite the fact they have tattoos and are microchipped. While there have been dogs that were close to matching the description, neither has been sighted by anyone in the community.

That’s something Blanchard finds peculiar.

“It’s like someone got them and disappeared,” he said.

For Blanchard, who works with a catering company, life without his two dogs has been a challenge. The stress of losing his dogs has caused a detached retina in one of his eyes, he said.

With no dogs helping him, Blanchard said he has been prone to diabetic seizures. According to Blanchard, he has been in the hospital four times since his dogs went missing.

He now hopes to get his dogs back soon – no questions asked.

“I just want them back,” Blanchard said. “Whoever has them, I hope they aren’t doing anything bad with them.”