A much-loved family dog lost in the Sydney storms gets found by a pet specialist and animal lover

KATE PLUMMER has 15 pets including six rabbits, two dogs, a bird, two cats, a fish, two guinea pigs — then during the Sydney storms she found a lost dog.

Dog rescued after running away during a storm. Pictured (left) is April 10, Kate Plummer who rescued the dog, Lana Palasovska, Paris 10.

KATE PLUMMER is one of the most qualified people to care for a lost pet — she has 15 of her own.

The Chatswood Pet Barn manager went straight into action last week when she saw a sopping, sad looking King Charles spaniel in the pouring rain at a service station while on her lunch break.

The two-year-old dog called Chelsea had become lost during Sydney’s intense storms and Ms Plummber helped reunite the pup with its grateful owners.

“I took him back to work and gave him a good blow dry and scanned his microchip,” Ms Plummer said.

She called the local council and notified local vets that she had found the dog.

Ms Plummer then made up flyers with Chelsea’s picture on them and dropped them off at vets in the area.

She also arranged to post his picture on a Facebook page for lost pets.

But no one called by the end of her shift at work so she decided to take him home with her.

“He spent the night with me in a single bed,” she said.

“My dogs got along very well with him but they were a bit unimpressed — he was inside when they were outside.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea’s owner, Lana Palasovska and her family were worried.

AUTISTIC BOY, 7, EXPELLED FROM AFTER-SCHOOL CARE

TURF WAR ERUPTS OVER SYNTHETIC GRASS

Pictured (left) is April, 10, Kate Plummer who rescued the dog, Lana Palasovska and Paris, 10. Picture: David Swift

“It was like my third child was gone,” Mrs Palasovska said. “He’s our little baby, he normally comes to work with me and I thought because it was raining and too wet l’d leave him at home.

“When my husband and the girls came home they saw the two front mesh flyscreens were all torn apart and he’s been scratching the side gate and scratching trying to get back in. They thought we’d been robbed.”

SES Willoughby-Lane Cove Unit at a house in Greenwich damaged by the storm. Picture: Elenor Tedenborg

They called the local vet and he told them Ms Plummer had found him about a kilometre from their home in Castle Cove.

“It was a beautiful reunion. He kind of went over to Kate and her partner before we left and sort of said his goodbyes — it was really cute.”

Senior animal behaviourist at the Animal Welfare League Rosalie Horton said it was common for dogs to be frightened during storms “just like little kids”, especially if they were kept outside.

“It can be so stressful for some animals that they can self harm,” Mrs Horton said.

“Some animals are so frightened by storms they chew through walls and jump out of windows.”

The best way to prevent your pet escaping in a storm was to check that your fences were secure and bring the pets inside, she said.

There were also GPS tracking systems that could be attached to a collar and accessed through a mobile phone app.

For storm and noise-phobic pets behavioural therapy could help, she said.

Details: awlnsw.com.au

Originally published as A much-loved family dog lost in the Sydney storms gets found by a pet specialist and animal lover