Foster dog stolen while on walk in Saugus, Massachusetts: "She had a really hard life"

It's every dog owner's nightmare. In a wooded area just off Route 1 in Saugus, Massachusetts, a man grabbed Sophie Ellis-Esty's two-year-old French bulldog mix foster dog named Maisie and ran.

"I didn't know what was happening at first," Ellis-Esty said. "I thought he was like picking her up just to say hi and then he started running away and then it was terrifying because I was realizing that he was trying to steal my dog and I was going as fast as I could."

Ellis-Esty owns a dog walking company and was walking several other dogs with Maisie when it happened at about 10:40 on Wednesday morning. Now, she is spreading the word, anything to bring her foster dog back home.

"She's really short, really sweet. A sweet dog," she said. "Will run up to anybody and say hi."

The Saugus Police Department is the leading the investigation and Ellis-Esty described the man who took Maisie as 5-foot-9, dark-skinned with shoulder length brown, wavy hair. Maisie is about 40 pounds, with a stocky build and a French bulldog face.

"She had a really hard life. She was found in Georgia with three dead puppies inside her on the side of the road and somebody saved her," Ellis-Esty said. "She almost died; she was septic. She was in the hospital for a while, and I saw her picture online."

Ellis-Esty said she knew right away that she wanted to help Maisie, and after just a few months of fostering, she's planning to adopt her.

All she wants is her dog safely returned. "If it's just about money we don't care. We'll pay whatever needs to be paid, we just want her back," Ellis-Esty said.

Both the Saugus and Lynnfield police scoured the entire wooded area looking for any clues that might lead them to the person that took Maisie.