Kirah

“Jo-anne Wright: Place an item of your clothing on an item of his near place of last sighting. Is your boy food or toy motivated? If food, place something nice as a feed station like hot bbq chicken or toy and he loves toys that squeak, you can go to the place of last sighting and squeak his toy.”

“Lyn Joy: Have you put up posters in the area? Many people are not online or on Facebook and some are resistant to taking found dogs to the pound. So there haven’t been any sightings? Is your lab a scared dog? Or brave and Human friendly? Where was your Lab last sighted? 

Mark and I went for a drive that night to search the Narara area and industrial estate with no sign.

Dec 1st:  Mark and I got up early to go for a drive around the Narara area in hope of a sighting Kirah – no sign.

Recommended to Kirah’s owner where to place posters.
Privately messaged the owner later that day  to offer our group’s help to find her beautiful girl.

Searches started again that afternoon in the area of last sighting by Robyn and Lyn with no luck.

Made plans to meet up with the owner that night to place posters and do a search of the area. With a massive storm brewing we decided to play it safe and leave it until the next day.

Dec 2nd: Area searched again by owner and a wonderful band of people who were not only driving around but walking through bushland.

That night, Mark, Lyn and myself met up with the owner to place our 4G camera  and set up a feed station behind a property in Narara Creek road.

Kirah’s owner and myself decided to do an impression of a mountain goat to see if we could see any sign of Kirah. The things we looked for were droppings, flattened grass, bracken fern and/or sheltered areas. Extending the search across the hill until we were stopped and advised to move away as we were on private property. 

Ok, I know it wasn’t a mountain, more like a steep hill. But when you are 56 yo with a bad back and bad knees it felt like Mt Everest. LOL

That night we also placed Kirah’s posters in letterboxes and tried to speak to as many people on the side of Narara Valley Rd where she was last sighted. As we were about to drop off a poster at one property we noticed a man and his son cutting up a tree that had fallen in the storm the night before. After delivering the poster and speaking to them we moved on. Who would know how important being on this property would become days to come?

Dec 3rd: Unconfirmed sighting near Lion’s Park Ourimbah.
Unconfirmed sighting about 3PM in Shirley St Ourimbah.
Unconfirmed sighting around 8PM in Shirley St Ourimbah.

These sightings were unconfirmed as no photo was taken of the Labradors that were spotted. Still, with every sighting they were still checked.

For the next two days and nights the owner, our group and other community members searched tirelessly for Kirah by car and on foot, placing posters in these new search areas. No sightings of Kirah were reported over these 2 days.

Dec 5th: 6:58AM: The day we had been waiting for! A post on a local Lost and Found Facebook page with Kirah’s poster saying “Kirah is on my property munching on my dog’s bones” 
Yay!

“Kirah is on our property now. Owner please message me, as I only have the Pound number. We have tried to catch her but She keeps running away.”

Remember the guy cutting the fallen tree with his sons when Kirah’s owner and I were handing out posters? Kirah was now sighted on that same property. I would like to think Kirah’s owner’s scent was there and the reason Kirah was drawn to that location.

After frantic messages between us and the owner we dropped everything to get to the property as fast as we could. Arriving first on scene we began searching under every plant and every bush but could not find her. With the owner arriving shortly after she started softly calling Kirah’s name, nothing. Then all of a sudden Kirah came out of hiding and stopped. Kirah sees her owner but does not recognise her at first. Kirah’s owner again starts calling but Kirah takes a step away and in unison Mark and I call out ‘Sit! Sit! Sit!. Which she did.  With that, Kirah remembers her Mum and runs into her loving arms, tail wagging.

Such an emotional, touching moment to see the pure joy of owner and lost furbaby reunited. After the emotional reunion, which had us all in tears, we noticed Kirah had a limp. We advised to take her for a vet check asap as well as a tick check. Luckily Kirah was up to date with tick medication.