Lost beagle Harley reunited with owners after six days on the loose in Adelaide’s south

Thousands of social media sleuths came together in real-time to bring the 10-year-old beagle home after he escaped six days ago.

An Adelaide couple says they were “blown away” by the public response after their beloved dog went missing with “thousands” banding together on social media to help find the missing canine.

Harley, the 10-year-old beagle went missing after he escaped from a dog grooming business on Wednesday last week, and found himself roaming the streets.

There were multiple sightings but no one could catch the cheeky pooch.

But on Monday night something special happened – after more sightings, social media sleuths started posting sighting while several following the saga – including local celebrity Andrew ‘Cosi’ Costello – jumped in cars and started trying to track the dog.

Together, using live updates on social media, Harley was found in a creek bed.

The moment Harley was reunited with owners Casey Knight and her partner Joseph Murdock on Monday night.

His owners, Casey Knight and Joseph Murdock said the search for Harley “propelled” by the power of social media was “overwhelming”.

Andrew Costello, also known as South Aussie with Cosi, posted on Facebook on Monday, saying he “packed the kids up and went searching too”, with his post attracting more than 2000 likes and hundreds of comments for Harley.

“I feel we are bloody close to finding this dog,” Cosi’s post read.

“I’m trying to find him for his family and he’s been sighted in the last half-hour.”

Even Cosi joined in the hunt to bring Harley home.

Harley was found and reunited with his owners on Monday night.

Ms Knight said there “would’ve been thousands” helping with the search.

“Everywhere we were walking and running on the streets, we had people saying, ‘I’ve seen him’, or ‘yep, I know you’re looking for him, I’m keeping my eyes out’,” she said.

Mr Murdock said he was picked up by multiple people who would drive him closer to where Harley was last sighted.

“I couldn’t keep up with him running so I was waving down random strangers and they just let me get in their car and they’d drive me to where I needed to go,” he said.

“That’s the sort of stuff where you go, ‘that’s pretty incredible here in SA … that’s SA great’.

“You don’t always see that and people just pulled over because people wanted to help.”

Joseph Murdock and his partner Casey Knight with their 10-year-old beagle Harley after his ordeal.

Harley was missing for five days.

Harley had been missing six days with his owners contacting sniffer dog handlers and even a pet detective to help find him.

“We were doing so much that we hired a pet detective on day one, we spoke to sniffer dogs (handlers), we put flyers up in every single suburb,” Ms Knight told the Advertiser.

“We walked through creeks, we walked along paths, we had so many family and friends out as well and just the general community looking as well.”

Unable to find him in the first few days, Ms Knight said she and her partner were able to place Harley across multiple locations in the southern suburbs between Highgate, Unley and Dulwich from sightings posted on social media.

Advice from the sniffer dog handlers had also encouraged Mr Murdock to run from Dulwich back to the couple’s home in Marleston, leaving a scent trail for Harley to follow home.

“I ran from Dulwich to Marleston one day, touching trees and bushes trying to give him something to sniff to get home,” he said.