Gigi, a 9-year-old pitbull-huntaway cross, has been missing from her Waikato home since July 18. Photo / Stacey Albertsen
“I’m just worried for her health ... I need to know if she’s sick.”
That’s the plea of a Waikato woman whose two dogs have been missing for over two months.
Te Kauwhata resident Stacey Albertsen believes she’s done plenty to find them already, including seeking advice from a professional dog tracker and continuously driving the extra gas mile.
She’s now offering a $1000 reward for their safe return or any information that could help locate them.
It’s not the first time 9-year-old Gigi and 2-year-old Hulk have gone missing, but it’s the first time they haven’t found their way back home.
Albertsen told the Waikato Herald Gigi might have cancer, and they were in the process of beginning blood tests when they disappeared.
“It’s so hard ... I need to know if she’s sick.”
The pair were seen by a member of the public at the Rangiriri Pā on July 18, the same day they went missing.
The pā is about a 9km and two-hour walk from their Belcher Rd home.
They were seen at about 10.30pm and once Albertsen was aware the next morning, she drove there and came across the duo’s pawprints.
She was certain it was them because “I know their [pawprints]”.
Gigi and Hulk are “nose-to-tail in sync” and “always right next to each other”.
“Having that big giant [pawprint] and her little ones right next to it, I just knew it,” she said.
The dogs were seen in an area with no houses, so she didn’t think other people would walk their dogs there.
The dogs weren’t found and another sighting of them, only a day later, also went nowhere.
Over two months later, this is still the last known sighting of them.
Albertsen said she had many questions, including whether they had been stolen or killed.
Hulk is a purebred XL Bully while Gigi is a Pitbull-Huntaway cross.
It’s “difficult” to think someone’s done something but is keeping silent, Albertsen said.
“If they’ve hurt another animal and had to be shot, I want to know.
“I completely understand rural living and farm life ... whether they are dead and buried already, I just want to know.”
Albertsen contacted a Nelson-based dog tracker and former Search and Rescue operative Don Schwass for advice.
On Facebook, Schwass runs the Nelson Search Dog/Tracking Page and has helped reunite more than 20 lost dogs with their owners since his movement began over 20 years ago.
His tracking dog, Piper, passed away in August, so he isn’t currently taking on new cases.
However, he told the Herald he did help Albertsen with some basic information.
“Put more of your energy into finding people who have seen the dogs rather than searching for them. It’s usually a faster way,” Schwass said.
When asked if he thought dogs took longer to come home once in the wild for days, he said: “Nope.”
“They can switch in or out, just depends on the circumstances.”
Albertsen has issued missing dog alerts with councils and vets across the North Island. Both dogs are microchipped.
Being a spiritual person, she said she believed the duo were alive and still together and it was “how they’re surviving”.
“I feel like I would know if they aren’t around me. I’ve had my girl since she was a pup ... I am quite connected with her in general.
“[Gigi] definitely would have found her way home.”
She is appealing to the public for help with a thermal drone to look over the top of the bushes off Waikare Rd. She’s also offering a $1000 reward.
In a few weeks, she’s walking 17km from Island Block Rd to Waerenga to raise awareness for her missing dogs.
“It’s been so long, I don’t want to give up ... I just want them home.”
If anyone has information or can help locate her dogs, she can be reached on 022 503 1490 or via email at Stacey_830@hotmail.com.
Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.