Army Officer Looking For His Best Friend A Yellow Lab Dog, Reward Offered

First Lt. Brandon Harker, U.S. Army and Oakley

Numerous people have donated reward money and still climbing for missing yellow Labrador dog.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 4, 2013

Lakewood,  Washington - Army First Lieutenant Brandon Harker, a native of Pennsylvania stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington has launched a campaign to locate his 2-year-old yellow Labrador dog after it was sold or given away without his permission by a friend who was taking care of the dog while Harker was deployed to Afghanistan for nine months. The dog is named Oakley and has a micro-chip implanted certifying Harker is the owner.

Harker told ABC News that Oakley was his best friend and was devastated to discover that his friend got rid of his dog and made no attempt to locate his family (Harker parents) to turn over the dog, even though the friend had their contact information. 

On July 30, Harker posted, "Another day gone by without any word on Oakley... Heres to hoping I get some good news tomorrow."

Now, Lt. Harker has place an ad looking for his dog in Graigslist and created a Facebook page. So far, no one has provided information about the whereabouts of Oakley.

If you have any information about Oakley, you can contact Lt. Harker at "Help Find Oakley" Facebook page. Also, more than $2,600 reward is being offered by Nancy Rosa who started Youcaring dot com to raise funds and help find Oakley.

On Saturday, August 10, a group of Army volunteers will meet at 10:00 a.m. at a local Target store, 5618 Lakewood Town Center Blvd SW to distribute fliers around Lakewood.

Harper posted the following message on Graigslist:

"I just recently returned from a 9 month deployment. And upon arrival back into the area I found out my yellow Labrador retriever was either given away or sold while I was gone. I was told this happened in May, but it could have happened anytime from February till June. He is good with kids and other dogs. He has a unique coat, on his face he has spots of a darker yellow (champagne) he also has spots of the same color going down his sides and legs. If anyone has any information on this and can help me please do. I am just trying to get him back to me since he was wrongfully given away or sold with out my permission while I was deployed. I will also be able to verify the dog is mine because he is micro-chipped and registered to me. Once again thank you to everyone who sees this and tries to help. If you could spread the word about this issues that would be great as well."