THE HUNT FOR THE WILDERHOUND
When beloved dog Jax got lost on a hunting trip, his owner thought he was a gonner – until 16 months later, when the plucky pup trotted out thinner, but very much alive. Samantha Gee reports.
IT took Uncle Hec and Ricky Baker five months before they walked out of the bush in Hunt for the Wilderpeople – but Jax the staffy-cross has them beat after surviving 16 months in rugged South Island wilderness.
Jax was just a young pup when his owner, Douglas, let his cousin take him on a hunting trip in the Nelson Lakes, near the Rainbow Ski Area.
And when the cousin later called him up to say ‘‘I’ve lost your dog’’, Douglas thought he was a gonner.
‘‘He had been over the West Coast hunting, he was doing really good, and then he just vanished,’’ Douglas, who did not want his surname used, said.
‘‘He was there one minute and gone the next. They went looking, put posts up, told all the farmers that he was on the run.’’
But no-one had seen the staffordshire bull terrier-mastifflabrador cross and he hadn’t been picked up by any of the local councils.
‘‘He was real young, and we didn’t know if he was going to live or die.’’
Fast-forward 16 months to last week when Douglas, who lives in Dunedin, received a call from a control services officer. The message said they had checked the microchip of a now threeyear-old Jax, who had been picked up in St Arnaud and it was good news: the runaway was registered to him.
‘‘I was like what do you mean, you’ve found my dog? I was so shocked,’’ Douglas said.
‘‘I’d given up. I didn’t think I would hear anything. To actually get that call while I was at work, I was like ‘oh my god’; I had to stop the forklift and everything.’’
Since he had gone on the run, Jax had become something of a Ricky Baker-style legend around St Arnaud, where he had surviving by scavenging off rubbish and whatever else he could find. Residents had glimpsed him over the past few months, and Department of Conservation senior biodiversity ranger Nik Joice had been given the ‘‘Paula the social worker’’ role and been sent out to take the runaway hound into custody. Eventually, Joice got his man after luring him in with a bucket of chieck-flavoured biscuits on LUZ ZUNIGA / STUFF Monday.
Douglas made the 770-kilometre journey to Nelson from Dunedin to be reunited with Jax yesterday, saying he was excited and nervous to see the fugitive after such a long time.
But his fears dissipated when Jax immediately recognised his name when he was called, and then stuck close by his side, obviously thrilled to be reunited.
Douglas said Jax was ‘‘way bigger’’ and a ‘‘wee bit lighter’’.
‘‘He goes away a boy and comes back a man, you see. It’s been a great adventure for the both of us and everyone else involved,’’ he said.
‘‘I can’t thank the other guys enough, to actually to be able to catch him, it’s amazing.’’
Tasman District Council animal control officer John Bergman said he hadn’t expected Jax to be so friendly given he had been on his own for so long.
‘‘I thought he would be shy so it’s a good sign.’’
Douglas said Jax would settle back into life with his other dog in Dunedin and he wouldn’t be hunting anytime soon.
‘‘I’ll get him re-trained first, get him around people.’’