Doggy detective finds Riley
Hidden away in an overgrown backyard, little Riley lay for five days battered, bruised and unable to move.
This was before another fourlegged friend came to save her.
Riley made an adventurous escape from her Three Kings home on August 24, scaling a wall and was then on the loose.
The timid six-month-old ridgeback-labrador cross was then seen being hit by a car on Mt Eden Rd around 2.30pm the same day. But after that there were no more sightings.
A young woman named Amy witnessed Riley being hit and stopped to try and help her as the driver drove off.
‘‘Amy gave us invaluable information about the direction Riley ran in so we were able to concentrate our efforts on [Three Kings] quarry and Big King [reserve], with huge support from locals and workers in the area,’’ Riley’s grandma Chrissie Wright says.
For five days, the Wright family searched the surrounding areas, Chrissie even posted on Neighbourly.co.nz and printed out posters.
After days without news they were beginning to fear the worst.
Elation came on Monday morning when Chrissie received a phone call from Sue Nair.
‘‘A lovely lady was walking in Big King Reserve and her dog Dudley drew her attention to the back of someone’s property,’’ Chrissie says.
Nair had been walking her labrador Dudley as she does every morning and had done their first loop.
‘‘Dudley went down to the fence and wouldn’t come back when I called him,’’ Nair says.
‘‘He wouldn’t move, he kept crying and went back to the fence and then just sat down even though I was pulling his collar.’’
Nair then saw two bright eyes poking out and recognised Riley from the posters dotted around.
With help from another couple nearby, Nair managed to call Chrissie and alert her they’d found Riley.
‘‘She was a lot thinner, really dehydrated and in a lot of shock,’’ Chrissie says.
‘‘She’d been licking her own wounds and bone and tendons were visible from where she’d been run over.’’
Riley went straight to the vet surgery and she’s now on the mend.
The Wright family want to thank the community for all their help in finding their beloved pooch.