By Derek Schlennstedt
Rosie the border collie has been found safe and sound wandering on Macclesfield Road 24 hours after her disappearance.
The lovable pup was found after owner and Macclesfield captain Sharon Merritt made a plea on social media for any information pertaining to the whereabouts of her dog.
It was alleged that while shopping at Emerald Safeway, Rosie had been taken from the back of Sharon’s ute.
It took only a few minutes for the dog to disappear, and Sharon was notified when her daughter, who she had been chatting to in Safeway, left only five minutes later to go say hi to the dog and noticed she was missing from the ute’s tray.
Rosie had been double clipped to the back of the ute’s tray, and the car had been parked in the underground Emerald Safeway car park where currently no security cameras exist.
Sharon says it would have been very difficult for a dog of her age to have gotten free from both leads, and then been able to jump down off the back of the ute.
“There were two leads attached, so I don’t think she could have accidentally come off two of them, and she had been in the ute for some time prior to that and hadn’t gotten loose.
“She’s eight years old, and has arthritis, so I have to lift her in and out of the tray,” she said.
Thankfully, Rosie was found 24 hours later walking down Macclesfield Road near Cherry Road, where, local residents who found her took her to the vet, at which point Sharon was contacted.
Rosie was found with a different lead attached to her which reportedly had chew marks on it and showed signs of having been chewed through.
Sharon thanks everyone for the overwhelming response from the community, and says she is so grateful to those people who helped her to re-unite her with her beloved friend.
“I was amazed at the response we received from Facebook, and I’m so grateful to the community and especially thankful to the people who found her and brought her to the vets,” she said.
Rosie had just been re-registered and micro-chipped before disappearing, and this meant vets were able contact Sharon directly and immediately when Rosie was brought there.
Vets in the area are reminding all responsible pet owners to register their cats and dogs and pay the renewals before the due date of 10 April.