Getting a lost dog back is like winning gold lotto

OWNER'S relief after Aussie was lost for 15 hours, sneaking out when a friend came to visit.

LUCKY: Aussie was found in Victoria St . Picture: Gerard Walsh

DRY AS A BONE column in Bush Telegraph by Gerard Walsh - A lighter look at rural life

LOSING our 11-year-old kelpie, Aussie, on Friday night put a real dampener on the weekend. He sneaked out when a visitor was at home.

But at 11am Saturday, I had a phone call from Warwick Veterinary Clinic and immediately knew it was about Aussie.

Someone had seen him in Victoria St and took him into the vet and the microchip revealed his details.

It felt like a lotto win that Aussie was safe and well.

As soon as I took him home, Max, our eight-year-old cross, started a fight with Aussie. Max seemed to like being the kingpin at home and wasn't happy the boss, Aussie, was returning.

I don't know who brought the dog in but thank you for your kindness to Aussie and to his family. Aussie and Max are farm dogs but luckily we had them microchipped.

At one time, I had an ear tag on their collar with their name and my number, and on another occasion, had a little silver tag done for the dogs with name and number.

It is interesting he was in Victoria St. There are about eight turns on the way to our farm at Greymare and Aussie had negotiated four of them.

Both the CEO and myself did the trip to and from the farm to look for Aussie on the highway.

He must have thought the races were on at Allman Park in Victoria St but had the wrong week.

In retrospect, we should have checked all the streets in town, particularly in the vicinity of the trip to the farm and we may have found him.

Be certain to have your dogs microchipped and, better still, also have a name and phone number attached to their collar.

So we got Aussie back... but my lost water tank is still at large.

Originally published as Getting a lost dog back is like winning gold lotto