Doug the pug is still missing after five weeks. Photo / Monique Burke
More than five weeks after beloved Northland Health School therapy dog Doug the pug vanished from Russell, his family, colleagues and students are still hopeful he’ll be found – and in time for his seventh birthday in April.
Doug, who worked as a volunteer therapy dog since he was a puppy, disappeared on January 13 while holidaying with his family at their Russell property.
His owner, Northern Health School (NHS) teacher Monique Burke, said Doug was seen that day visiting a nearby property – something he routinely did before “trotting on home”. But this time, he never arrived.
She sensed something was wrong when Doug had been gone for more than an hour.
Family and friends spent that night and the following fortnight searching relentlessly, but there was no sign of Doug.
Burke, who lives and works in Whangārei but spends family time in Russell, said those first weeks were “brutal”, especially for her two young daughters who missed their canine cuddle-buddy.
“The initial shock and grief of his going in those first couple of weeks was quite huge, Burke said. “Navigating that with our own children and their sadness and their loss as well – it was really, really full on … thinking of all the worst-possible scenarios.”
Even now, more than a month on, the strangeness of Doug’s absence follows her everywhere.
“I sort of keep expecting to see him or have him with me,” she said. “There’s little triggers that make me think, ‘Oh gosh, Doug would come along with me for this one’, or if there’s a new student starting at work … he’d usually come and meet the new student with us. There are reminders every day that he’s not here – and it’s tough.”
Despite a social‑media campaign, door‑knocking, flyers, inquiries of Department of Conservation trappers and posters on the Paihia–Russell passenger ferries and the Opua car ferry, not a single confirmed sighting has been reported.
Given Russell’s tight-knit community, Burke doubts Doug is still there.
“I think by now if he had been with somebody who is a resident, someone would have seen him, or someone would know something,” she said. “It makes me think he’s not in Russell anymore. Maybe he was initially, but he has been taken out of Russell.”
Burke had recently removed Doug’s collar before he went missing, raising concern that someone might have mistakenly thought he was abandoned.
“I’m telling myself … if he has been picked up by somebody, it’s someone who has a soft spot for pugs,” she said. “I like to think they thought, ‘Oh gosh, I want to take you home and look after you’.
She hoped he was with someone being treated like royalty and having a nice vacation. “I can make peace with that to a point, but ultimately I would prefer he was home with his family and returned to his work family as well,” Burke said.
Word of Doug’s disappearance has spread far beyond Northland. A friend of Burke’s mother approached a pug owner in Whangaparāoa – only to be told she was the third person that day to ask whether the dog was Doug.
“It’s actually quite humbling and amazing,” Burke said. “People who have no idea who we are have got the story of Doug and are doing their part.”
Back at school, Doug’s absence is felt deeply, Burke said. He was a gentle and reassuring presence for anxious students and often featured in safety plans for students who felt overwhelmed.
He supported transitions back to mainstream schools and even worked alongside psychologists to help students with dog phobias.
“He was just the perfect remedy for so many of our kids,” Burke said.
Students returning to NHS have been shocked to learn Doug is missing, while new students were disappointed they may never meet him.
At home on the Tutukaka Coast, Doug is missed just as fiercely. Around Ngunguru “everyone knows who Doug the pug is”, Burke said.
She and others renew social‑media posts weekly to spread the word as far as possible.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast.