Dog survives week in park before being found

Aydie Holland and her dog Belle are happy to be reunited. Photo/ supplied

A Whanganui woman who lost her dog in Matipo Park was delighted to get her back after nearly a week.

She was just lucky that a man walking there at dusk heard a dog growl from the undergrowth and decided to investigate when it happened again days later.

Aydie Holland had only had Belle, a six-year-old Jack Russell terrier, for two months when she took her for a walk in the Brunswick Rd park.

Belle was still learning to come when she was called, so Miss Holland had her on a 5m lead attached to a choke collar. The idea was she would call her dog and give a little tug on the lead. The tug would remind the dog, who would feel she had decided to come all by herself.

Miss Holland has since learned there may be kiwi in the park, and she shouldn't have let Belle roam free.

She wasn't holding the lead when her dog went around a corner and disappeared.

She called and searched, returning to the park six times over two days and looking everywhere. She didn't see or hear her new pet, and it was like losing a child.

"It felt like Matipo Park was a dark and hungry place. The trees knew where she was, and I didn't. Every time I came out I was just distraught."

Miss Holland decided she had to move on, but put a post on Facebook the following Saturday, to say how distressed she had been.

That night she got a ring from the dog ranger, who told her to sit down because he had some very happy news. Miss Holland said "Have you got my little girl?"

Her dog had been found. A man walking in Matipo Park heard a growl from the bushes on Queen's Birthday weekend. When he heard the growl again, nearly a week later, he traced it to the lost dog.

"By that time she had chewed through her nylon leash and she emerged, looking anxious. He let her calm down, took her home and rang the dog pound."

Waiting at the man's house Belle had been running anxiously around. When Miss Holland went to get her she was so wild with excitement it was difficult to get the full story from her finder.

Miss Holland thanked him profusely, and went home covered in white dog hair. Belle was none the worse for her adventure - only a little thinner.