Janice Pilcher was understandably frazzled and upset Saturday morning when she contacted East Cobb Patch. 

Her dog Gracie had disappeared Thursday night, having left the family's backyard near the intersection of Sandy Plains Road and Trickum Road without her tags. 

She asked us to post this picture of the dog on our Facebook page, then went to the Cobb County Animal Shelter to see if Gracie had been brought there. On Sunday, she plied the neighorhood with flyers. 

None of those attempts turned up any sighting of Gracie. 

Pilcher contacted us again on Monday morning to happily announce that Gracie was spotted not too far from home.

"Our neighbor saw her running in the neighborhood yesterday morning while having coffee and ran after her. She is home now and safe. Thank you for your help!"

We don't know how much we helped, but we were glad to be asked to assist. This was our first "missing pet" story, and we're here to help out any East Cobb pet owner whose beloved family member goes missing. 

Just e-mail wendy.parker@patch.com and we'll get out an alert. 

It's something we hope we don't have to do very often.