MOURNING FAMILY SEARCHES FOR LOST DOG

To Lenda Craig, "Wheddo" is more than just her late husband's lost dog. He's family, and she wants him back.

Wheddo, a 9-month-old malamute-chow, was riding in the camper when Craig's husband's pickup left Highway 34 west of Burfordville in Cape Girardeau County about 10:15 p.m. on Dec. 27.

Wheddo was seen running away from the accident.

On Tuesday, Craig filed a missing dog report with the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri animal shelter in Cape Girardeau County. She wants anyone with information about the dog to call her collect at (314) 996-3708.

Craig's husband, Scott, 28, was killed six miles from the grandmother's rural home, where Lenda was staying with her children over the holiday. Scott Craig's pickup truck struck a dirt embankment.

Now Scott's mourning family is searching for his best friend, Wheddo.

"He was just like Scott," Lenda Craig said of the pet. "I used to tease Scott all the time that this is really your kid.

"I have never seen an animal so closely resemble its owner," she said Wednesday from her mother-in-law's home in Doniphan where she is staying. "They had a lot of the same personality traits."

Scotty Houdashelt, Scott Craig's mother, also wants to find the dog, which was her son's constant companion for almost a year before his death.

"Every step he took, that dog took," she said.

The strawberry blond dog weighs about 80 pounds. He has white markings on his chest and green-yellow eyes. He was wearing a collar but no tags at the time of the accident.

Lenda and Scott Craig had been living in an apartment in St. Ann in St. Louis County. Scott Craig had been working at a nursing home while studying to become a licensed practical nurse. He had been scheduled to graduate in mid-March.

"We were going to go to South Dakota," Lenda Craig said. He wanted to work in a hospital on an Indian reservation.

"He always had an affinity for Indians and loved South Dakota," she said.

Scott Craig had worked during the Christmas holiday in St. Louis. Accompanied by his dog, he was en route to see his four stepchildren at their home near Marble Hill when the accident occurred.

A tow truck operator at the accident scene saw the dog flee from under the twisted wreckage of the truck's camper shell and run across a field.

Lenda Craig doesn't think Wheddo was injured. There wasn't any blood in the camper shell. She hopes that a nearby farmer might have taken in Wheddo.

Animal shelter administrator Jhan White said they haven't had any dogs that meet Wheddo's description.

"It may have been injured and may have run up in the woods and died," White said. "There is just no way of knowing."

But Scott Craig's relatives believe otherwise.

"I know that dog is out there," Houdashelt said.