Two golden retrievers missing in Tasmania’s north for two weeks have been found safe after being spotted wandering on a road, with the men who rescued them refusing a $5,000 reward offered by their owner.
Three-year-old Penny and her one-year-old daughter Dot disappeared from their Blackstone Heights home after escaping from the yard of owner Eliza Carins.
The pair were found on Tuesday afternoon in Riverside, around five kilometres from home and on the other side of the South Esk River, after three men spotted them on the road and stopped to help.
The men contacted Carins straight away and declined any reward, with Carins saying they were more concerned for the dogs’ safety.
“I had a phone call at 2:28 yesterday afternoon by a man, and three men had all stopped at the same time and found them just wandering on the road,” Carins told Pulse.
“Luckily, they hadn’t been hit by a car, ’cause that would’ve been a bit of an awful ending to an adventure that they’d had.”
Carins said she was overwhelmed when she received the call and rushed to collect them.
“I was an absolute mess,” she said.
“So relieved.”
During their two weeks missing, the dogs appear to have stayed together and survived freezing overnight temperatures that dropped to minus three degrees and heavy rain.
“They will never share a bed or share a food bowl, but I was thinking they would’ve had to snuggle up,” Carins said.
A $5,000 reward had been offered amid fears the dogs may had been stolen, prompting a large search effort across bushland and farmland between Blackstone Heights and Travellers Rest using thermal drones, trail cameras, kayaks and motorbikes.
Carins said the response from the community had been overwhelming.
“The community has really got behind us and helped in any way they can,” she said.
“They [the three men] just are happy that the dogs are back, which is amazing,” she said.
Penny and Dot are now recovering at home, resting in front of the fire in new beds and being fed up after their ordeal.
Carins said her two children were ecstatic when she picked them up from school with the dogs already in the car.
