Dramatic rescue of Shogun the dog immortalised in children's book

Geoff and Jane Pordon with Moon (left) and Shogun, with Jeep partly hidden.

Te Puke Firefighters have become Shogun's Heroes - and their bravery has been immortalised in print.

Last year Te Puke Fire Brigade was called to rescue a rather large dog named Shogun that had got himself stuck down a ravine.

Now Shogun's owner has written a children's book telling the story of the rescue and the events that made it necessary. She has given the book the title Shogun's Heroes.

Te Puke Times reported the rescue in August last year when Shogun, a 56kg leonburger, aided and abetted by a golden retriever called Moon, escaped from Jane and Geoff Pordon's No 2 Rd property.

While Moon was found within the hour, Shogun was missing for about four hours.

"I originally put a short version of the story on Facebook, on the golden retriever New Zealand page because of Moon and a lady from the South Island contacted me and said she was an illustrator and would love, in her own time, to illustrate the story."

It wasn't the plan to produce a book, but illustrator Jane Smith didn't rule it out.

"Over the year, the story progressed because she did so many pictures and then I had to fill it out and make it into a children's story."

The tale begins with Jane as narrator, but as the dogs embark on their adventure, Shogun takes up the story.

"The story in the book is true to what happened - I could have filled it out a lot more."

Jane and husband Geoff saw the escape unfold but were powerless to stop it.

"They are so quick - Moon is the trouble maker. He's the leader of the pack and he was so quick out of the gate and Shogun followed him," Jane says.

"Jeep [Shogun's dad] just stood there saying 'see you later' and off they went. We watched them go calling them to come back - but they didn't."

How Shogun's rescue was reported in Te Puke Times in August last year.

Geoff and Jane had an inkling they would head to the gully - and to the water.

While Moon was found quickly - very dirty but otherwise fine, Shogun wasn't.

"I was frantic,'' Jane says.

"Geoff was a little bit more laid back and said 'don't worry, he'll come back when he's hungry' but I wasn't convinced that he would."

After posting to Facebook and calling the council, she kept looking and took Jeep who tracked Shogun to the edge of the ravine.

Jane tried to see over the edge of the gully, hanging onto the vegetation, but discretion overcame valour and she decided it was too risky to try and go any further.

But eventually, Shogun started making a noise, then barking and, knowing where he was, Jane was able to call on the fire brigade to rescue him.

The firefighters who rescued Shogun last year. Photo / Supplied

"They just skidded down, sliding and skidding down on their bums," Jane says.

It took two of them to manoeuvre Shogun and get him back to the top with the help of a "tatty old rope" that Jane has embellished into a lead in the book.

"He had fallen into a hole and started to try and dig his way out, so the firemen told us," Jane says.

The dogs have plenty of adventures, some of which make it on to Facebook, so Jane says another book isn't out of the question.

''I take thousands of photos and select a few and some of them end up as stories on Facebook. They are usually quite comical so everybody is expecting this book to be a comedy, but it isn't really. It does have a happy ending though.''

Shogun's Heroes is for sale in Te Puke Paper Plus, online at Amazon or can be bought by emailing Jane at JaneandGeoff@xtra.co.nz.

"I doubt it's going to be huge, but the comments I'm getting back are that the grandchildren are loving it and adults are loving it.

"One lady messaged me and said 'it's had me in tears' so it's quite exciting and quite out of the blue."