GREENE – Laurie Garrity was devastated when her young golden retriever, Ivy, suddenly died a year-and-a-half ago.

Garrity grieved for more than a year before she was willing to get another dog. When a friend handcrafted a golden retriever mailbox in honor of Ivy this winter, Garrity felt she could finally remember her beloved dog without so much pain.

Then, last weekend, less than a week after she put it up, someone stole the mailbox.

“It was like losing Ivy all over again,” she said. “I cried all day Saturday.”

Garrity and her family are searching for the thief. They’ve trolled the town looking for the mailbox. Garrity’s posted fliers in local post offices and around Greene, pleading for the mailbox’s return.

“Someone probably thought it was beautiful. It is. But it means a lot to me. I want it back,” she said.

Garrity, a special education teacher, got Ivy when the golden was a puppy. She and her husband, Tim, initially planned to breed the happy, playful dog, but they backed away from that plan when they discovered that Ivy had a hip problem. When she was 2 they had her spayed.

Shortly after, while running with Garrity’s husband at their camp in Litchfield, Ivy collapsed. They believe she died from an aneurysm, perhaps connected to the operation.

The couple adored golden retrievers and always planned to have at least one in their life. But after Ivy, Garrity couldn’t even think of getting another dog. For over a year she mourned.

Last November, Garrity and her husband got Bella, a shy, lanky golden puppy. Soon after, her friend gave her the golden retriever mailbox – with a mailbox body and a dog’s wooden head, tail and paws – to honor Ivy’s memory and to welcome Bella to the family.

“He even matched the color of Bella, caramel with a pink tongue,” Garrity said.

Because she didn’t want it struck by a snowplow, Garrity waited until May to put out the mailbox. She set it up at the end of her rural driveway on a Sunday. She planned to paint the family’s name on it the following weekend.

She didn’t get a chance.

At some point between last Friday night and Saturday morning, the mailbox disappeared.

Garrity believes someone may have been attracted to it because it was so unusual.

She’s spent the week putting up posters at the Greene and Sabattus post offices and at local businesses. Her niece and nephew have brought the posters to school, and other family members have driven through town to see if someone stole the box and then put it up to use it.

So far, nothing.

Although it’s illegal to steal a mailbox, Garrity hasn’t gone to the police yet. She doesn’t want to see someone arrested – she just wants her mailbox back.

In the meantime, her friend has promised to make her another one. But to Garrity, it won’t be the same.

“I just absolutely loved it,” she said.