Tessa

I saw a lost post on facebook on the 23rd January, 2021. What concerned me most, was that the owners were on holidays and their dog doesn’t know the area. 

Post on Facebook – LOST MINI FOXIE
Lost since the storm last night from Wamberal near the lagoon.
Small black and white mini foxie with a red collar, comes to Tessa.
If you could please keep an eye out and if found contact G………..
Thanks for all your help in advance.

Lyn commented on facebook post:–
Lyn Joy,
Norma  Is she microchipped and is it up to date?
Have you phoned the pounds?
Is she friendly? Would she go to anyone?
Or go to people if they call her name. Although a lost dog can go into survival mode and just run from people.
Obviously you have done up heaps of posters, which is great.
Can you give a more accurate description on where and how she was lost?
From home?

Norma answered:-
Hi Lyn,
Thanks for the call yesterday, it was very informative.
Just for the other members I will repeat the info I provided you yesterday.
Tessa was lost on Friday the 22/01/21, around about 6:00 pm in the evening.

The thunder from the storm happened very quickly, usually we would shut the doors and she would hide under the bed. On this occasion we didn’t get a chance to shut the doors and she seems to have escaped under the gate which has only about 100 mm space. Which she has never been able to get under before.

We are in Wamberal at the beginning of the lake.
No one saw her get out or has seen her since, so hopefully she will come out and reveal herself soon.
Thanks very much for everyone’s help and concern, it is appreciated.

I was on the phone messaging and also ringing and talking to Tessa’s owners everyday, getting updates on where they had searched, where they had put posters. Keeping their hopes up and making suggestions, based on their information, about where to look.  We at Milly’s check out and study maps of the area pets were lost and talk over between ourselves and the owners on all possibilities.  The amount of discussions and map searching, takes up quite a bit of our time, as its a great way to work out where to search or where we have already searched.  

In my mind, based on where Tessa was used to be being walked, she would have chosen in fear to go that direction on instinct. I had a feeling she was either in the thick bush a few doors down from where she escaped from. 

Or over the other side of the lagoon in thick and large bushland, that stretched all the way to Forresters Beach.

Her owners searched through there everyday, and the bush a few doors up. It was so thick, it was hard to get into. They placed posters everywhere, even over at Forresters.  

They received a couple of false alarm calls saying Tessa was over the other side of the Central Coast Highway and another saying she was in Forresters Beach suburb. None of these calls could be discounted. So they were checked out and in both cases it was a different dog people had seen that lived at those places. 

There were no real sightings and Tessa’s owners were thinking they had lost her for good. I kept reassuring them that dogs are amazing and are survivors. She has plenty of water, as it had been raining and she would eat insects if hungry, especially cicadas as there were plenty of them around. Her owners said Tessa actually often eats insects and cicadas normally. I said she has probably found a warm dry place to hide and wait for you to find her or she will break cover and go looking herself and people will see her.  Also reassuring was that Tessa was up to date with her tick prevention. 

I told them the stories about Cindy and Begbie that were lost in the bush and not seen for days. About Archie disappearing for two weeks with no sightings. 

I drove around a few nights, and also walked through bush and other areas searching and getting ideas on where she might be. 

One day I suggested she could even be under a house nearby, and told them to door knock and  one house had lots of space to hide under not far from where they were. 

They went up to that house and door knocked and told them about Tessa. It turned out she wouldn’t be under that house, as they had a dog that would have barked if that was the case, but they checked anyway and the owners offered Tessa’s Dad the use of a kayak to paddle around the lagoon . So on that day he paddled around the outskirts of the lagoon near the bush calling her name. Over and over, paddling and paddling. 

This little lost dog taught us something. If the owner is calling out for their lost pet, they need to stop in one place and call and wait, call and wait. Do not rush off to the next spot. 

12 year old Tessa heard her Dad calling and used the direction of the sound of his voice to make her way through the lost bush towards him. However he had kept paddling and Tessa could no longer hear his voice and couldn’t work out what direction to keep heading towards. So she started calling out, barking, herself. 

People in another kayak hear a distressed dog barking out and decided to pull in and check it out. They walked into the bush in the direction of the barking and came across Tessa. YAY.

So it turns out Tessa did run the direction she normally is walked, across the other side of the lagoon, which is where I strongly suspected she might be.

Norma when Tessa was found on 30th January 2021:-

Tessa has been found.

We found Tessa after 8 days of her missing. She was very tired, hungry and thirsty apart from that quite healthy.

We would like to thank everyone for their help, support and concern in helping to return Tessa.

We would also like to thank Lyn from Milly’s Search, Trap and Rescue who provided great advice on where to look and what to do to try and find her. If anyone has a missing pet I can highly recommend them.

We would also like to thank Jasen, Zane, Nicole and Wayne for finding her.
Kindest Regards
Norma & Graeme

Tessa’s parents took her straight to the vet for a checkup as recommended. She was in great health, although they said she had lost a bit of weight.  But not enough weight to be of any concern. 

We were all so happy for Tessa and her parents and they were so relieved. They invited me to visit and meet Tessa. Such a sweet little girl who is very very loved. (click on photo to see a little slide show).