A Plea to Public From Ailing Girl’s Father: Find Tippy

A Huntington Beach father on Thursday asked for help in finding a dog belonging to his leukemia-stricken daughter.

The dog, Tippy, ran away Tuesday from a back yard in Buena Park, and a countywide search has been launched to try to find the male, tan-colored cockapoo.

“Tippy is as important to my daughter as any medicine the doctors might give her,” Ed Chevallier said. “Tippy is like a lovable rag doll to Lori. When she’s home, Tippy sleeps on her bed.”

Lori Chevallier, 22, is currently in a hospital in San Jose, under treatment for leukemia--a form of cancer affecting the blood. Lori Chevallier also has suffered from birth from a form of retardation called Down’s syndrome.

Ed Chevallier said Tippy has been with Lori for the past 10 years and is profoundly important to the young woman’s happiness and emotional stability. “She’s always talking about Tippy,” he said. “In recent days, the thing she’s talked the most about is moving to her new house ‘with the big yard for Tippy.’ ”

The young woman has not been told that the dog is missing for fear it will upset her and worsen her condition, her father said.

Chevallier said he was in the process of moving his family from Los Gatos, in Northern California, to Orange County when doctors discovered in late November that Lori Chevallier had leukemia. She had to be hospitalized, but doctors predict that she may be released “within the next 3 or 4 days,” her father said.

Chevallier said he is desperately hoping to find Tippy before Lori Chevallier comes to the family’s new home in Huntington Beach.

“My son, Raymond, and I brought Tippy down with us when we were hauling a load of furniture,” Chevallier said. “We had the dog at another son’s house in Buena Park. The dog had a nice back yard to play there, but Tippy jumped the fence about 6:30 Tuesday night.”

The home the dog ran away from is on Peru Circle in Buena Park, in an area bordering the city of La Palma. It also is about a mile south of the Riverside Freeway, near the surface street intersection of Valley View Street and Orangethorpe Avenue.

Chevallier said the dog has a red collar without a license tag. “We had taken off its other collar, which has Tippy’s license on it,” he said. He added that the 10-pound male dog stands about 1 foot high, is about 2 feet long, and has curly tan hair.

Chevallier said he has checked frequently among dogs brought to the Orange County Animal Shelter, “and I’ll keep checking.” But he said he believes that the chances of finding the little dog are improved if others are looking.

He asked anyone with information about Tippy to call him at (714) 962-2724.

“It’s very important that we find Tippy,” Chevallier said. “My daughter has had so many things happen to her, so much adversity. I don’t want anything else to let her down. The last time I talked to her, she told me, ‘Tell Tippy I love him.’ ”