Thursday, August 24, 2023

Issue:

Mackay and Whitsunday Life

A DOG-DAMN MIRACLE PUPS RESCUED AFTER FIVE DAYS

Lost And Found

Two adventurous dogs, Glock and Winx, went missing in mid-June from their home in Jubilee Pocket, leading their owners on a five-day chase across the Whitsunday suburb before a teary reunion.

Glock, a black Staffordshire terrier, and Winx, what her owners Jessica Fricker and Brad Mitchell call a “bitsa”, were accidentally let out from the back garden of their Erromango Drive home on Saturday, June 18.

The dogs travelled from Erromango all the way up to the highest heights of Jubilee Pocket, mounting Moonlight Drive and eventually venturing out into the Conway Ranges – unbeknownst to their owners.

Over five days, Brad and Jessica, along with Jessica’s two children – Lincoln and Indy – worked their way around the suburb calling out the dog’s names and even leaving clothes at a few sites, hoping to entice the dogs to stick around the area.

They were joined in the hunt by Whitsunday residents and good Samaritans from as far afield as Bloomsbury.

The only clue for the local parents came from an older gentleman named Chris, who said he had seen the dogs the night they went missing. They had been barking in his back garden on Moonlight Drive, just 800-or-so metres from where they would eventually be found.

They stayed lost for five more days.

“Every day from the moment we dropped the kids off at school, we were out looking for them, calling for them,” Jessica said.

“I was driving up near Moonlight and luckily, I knocked on Chris’s door and asked him if he’d seen them, and he said: ‘Yeah, they were trying to eat my dogs last night!’”

That glimmer of hope dimmed over the next few days as no further sightings were reported. No one was more devastated than the 11-year-old Indy.

Indy shares a special bond with Glock, who acts as an emotional support dog for her disability.

“I could get her a thousand other dogs, but it wouldn’t be him,” Brad said.

“That’s why we had to find him. And they certainly know they’re loved now.”

After five days with no news and as many sleepless nights, the family received a call from Chris, who said he had heard the dogs near his property again on Wednesday morning.

“We got there, we called out for them and they howled back. I said: ‘That’s them’ and we just walked straight through the rainforest,” Jessica said.

Brad and Jessica trekked through thick brush and winding rock paths into a gully and around 120 metres of elevation in the Conway Ranges to follow the sounds of Winx and Glock.

“The SES said to us later, ‘How did you get through this?’ and they had come up in long pants, boots. We were wearing thongs – which we both lost our pairs of, so we were barefoot - and shorts!” Brad said.

They found Winx and Glock at a three-tiered waterfall. Winx had fallen into the lowest tier pool, while Glock was watching over her from the top.

Jessica said that, when she saw they were both together, she “went to water”.

“I just cried and cried – I couldn’t stop and Glock tried to come over to me. He almost fell off the rocks!” she said.

The dogs were wet, scrawny, and shaking, but “elated”.

The family was partially reunited; now they just needed to get home.

Brad and Jessica had been in contact with friends, updating them continually on the journey. Brad reached out to his mother to contact Whitsunday Police, who filed a report to alert the local SES branch.

The pair found Winx and Glock at around 3.00pm – they’d began their own trek at around midday, and it was 9.00pm before they heard the team of five SES operators coming up through the rainforest.

Whitsunday SES Controller Mark Connors said they hadn’t performed that kind of rescue operation for some time – especially one with dogs.

“In the Conway, it gets extremely dense so it was pretty rough going for all of the operators,” he said.

“We were able to get an exact location, but we just had to work out a way to get there. We took some food up for the dogs because we knew they were undernourished, and we just had to walk them out.

“They were hoping for a helicopter but with the dogs that just wasn’t possible.”

Mr Connors said it is always a great feeling when a mission ends as a good news story, but as an animal lover, he was particularly pleased.

“One of the dogs came out first with the first part of the team and promptly sat down on my foot!” Mark said.

“It was also, for some of my guys, their first search and rescue and they loved every minute of it.”

Jessica and Brad arrived back home by 10.00pm, opening the door to a sleeping Indy, who woke up with some sloppy wet kisses from her favourite dogs.

Glock and Winx, who usually sleep alone on a bed in the living room, have been joined every night this week by Indy curled up on the couch nearby.

“It meant more to her than it did to anyone else,” Brad said.

A Facebook post on a local group, Whitsundays Chat, alerting locals the dogs were home has since received upwards of 1000 likes and overwhelming positive feedback.

Winx and Glock are finally home, a little skinnier, but safe after their rainforest adventure.

Jessica Fricker, Glock, Winx, and Brad Mitchell unified at last

Jessica Fricker, Brad Mitchell, and their two dogs were helped down from the Conway Ranges by local SES after rescuing their lost pups

Jessica and Brad found Glock and Winx near a waterfall one kilometre into the Conway National Park

The SES trekked through the same tough terrain that Jessica and Brad did to find the quartet

Jessica’s daughter, Indy, with Glock, who acts as an emotional support dog

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