Lost dog at Innisfail Facebook and TikTok posts go viral in hunt for owner

The internet has gotten behind an Far North couple’s determined bid to reunite a lost pup and her owner with viral social media posts yielding no luck, after two weeks.

Social media posts for a lost pup found near the rural suburb Garradunga, north of Innisfail, have gone viral.

A lost pup found in Far North Queensland hasn’t found her owners despite a doorknocking and desperate appeals plastered across the internet.

What’s believed to be about a 12-month-old foxy-dachshund cross found her way to a family farm shed at Daradgee, north of Innisfail, two weeks ago.

Danni and Luke McAvoy said finding lost dogs wandering on their property in the rural suburb wasn’t uncommon, but they were surprised by the condition of the well-mannered and “friendly” pup that appeared on March 19.

A dog estimated to be about 12 months old was found at a Daradgee property north of Innisfail. Picture: Supplied

“Usually we’ve found the owner pretty quickly, but the dogs aren’t usually in as good a condition or as friendly,” Ms McAvoy said.

“Our neighbour has been phenomenal, he has doorknocked just about everyone within a 10km radius in Daradgee and Garradunga. He met a lot of neighbours we didn’t even know we had.

“We found her with no collar, no chip, but she’s house trained and looked after so I don’t want to believe she’s been dumped.”

Ms McAvoy said she reached out to all the usual community groups including the council, vets, police, the hospital and even Blue Care – on the theory it could belong to an elderly resident receiving at-home care and a carer might recognise the dog.

Danni McAvoy’s neighbour doorknocked almost every house around Daradgee and Garradunga in search of the owner of a lost pup.

There’s posters around town, and Facebook posts in just about any relevant group Ms McAvoy could think of, in an attempt to track down the owner.

Online posts shared more than 800 times have reached audiences as far as Victoria while videos of the dog have received more than 50,000 views.

“That original post has been split off so many times now, I can’t keep up with how many times it’s been shared,” Ms McAvoy said.

“People suggested sharing it in caravanning groups – there’s the theory some grey nomads travelling through might have lost her.”

Ms McAvoy who owns two border collie cross dogs said while her own pets had befriended their new housemate, she couldn’t bring herself to give the pup a temporary name.

“I can’t, I would get too attached – it’s just ‘girl’ at the moment.”

A dog estimated to be about 12 months old was found at a Daradgee property north of Innisfail. Picture: Supplied

Ms McAvoy said she had been overwhelmed by the number of messages from the public requesting to adopt the lost pup.

“We’ve found someone we think she’d be brilliant with, but we don’t want to make any steps before we’ve exhausted all our options to find her owners.

“It’s getting heartbreaking to have to tell people that we do plan on finding the owners and we do have someone in mind should we chose to rehome her.”

Ms McAvoy said anyone with information about the owner could get in touch via email – [e-mail]

Originally published as Lost dog at Innisfail Facebook and TikTok posts go viral in hunt for owner