For three-year-old Bryson Wentland, puppy love has deep meaning and stirs a longing loss.

Since Bryson was no more than a pup himself, he has snuggled in bed each night with his best friend Roxy and awakened each morning to her “kiss” on his face.

These days, Bryson cries himself to sleep at night and wakes with a whimper – the sounds of a lost puppy love.

Roxy has been missing from the Wentland home on Tennille Road since the early hours of Sunday, May 29.

Candy Wentland said she has done all she knows to do to find the two-year-old brown and black female Chihuahua that is her son’s best friend.

“We just keeping hoping and praying that someone will find her and return her to Bryson,” Wentland said. “She means so much to him. He’s heartbroken without her and we are heartbroken for him.”

Bryson has a rare bone disease, osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), which is a genetic disorder characterized by bones that break easily, often from little or no apparent cause.

“Bryson has had six broken legs and has had to have casts,” Wentland said. “When he was in a cast he couldn’t get around much and Roxy would sit right there with him. She was his favorite playmate. They loved each other. It breaks my heart to see him miss her so much.”

The Wentlands have another Chihuahua, a male, and the dogs are allowed outside each day to exercise and have never gone far from the house.

“It was Memorial Day weekend and we went to a barbecue and didn’t get back until late on Saturday night,” Wentland said. “I let the dogs out while we were gone. When we got back it was late and we went on to bed. Sunday morning, I went to let the dogs in and Roxy was not there. I called her but she didn’t come and that was not like her. We looked everywhere but couldn’t find her. It was not like Roxy to go far off. I knew something had happened to her.”

The Wentlands began to canvas the area in hopes of finding Bryson’s best friend but feared that something had happened to her or that someone had picked her up.

“Roxy is very friendly and she would have gone to anyone if they had called her,” Wentland said. “We just keep hoping that someone saw her and thought she was a lost dog and that they will bring her home.”

Candy and AJ Wentland have searched all up and down Tennille Road for their son’s lost pup. They have posted flyers and made telephone calls. So far, nothing.

“Roxy had on a hot pink collar and she will answer to her name,” Wentland said. “Bryson is lost without her. She makes him happy because he loves her so much. We just hope that anyone who has seen Roxy or knows anything about her will contact us. It would mean so much to Bryson to have her back.”

Anyone with information about Roxy is asked to call the Wentlands at 1-334-341-3908 or 334-566-4270.