Unpredictable end for AWOL dog

Mouse, the runaway dog, escaped capture for three weeks until he was found playing with a surprising companion.

The bearded-collie cross had been at the Nelson SPCA for 10 days before he went out on trial with a family in Riwaka on May 3.

SPCA canine team leader Nicola Blasdale said he ‘‘did a runner on day one’’.

‘‘The people that took him were distraught. A very lovely family with just a really unfortunate situation.’’

The SPCA posted a plea on social media for people to ‘‘keep an eye out for him’’.

‘‘We had reports of him. A lot of people phoned in and said ‘I’ve seen him’, but they couldn’t get close enough to him.’’

Blasdale said he was obviously very nervous.

The family were encouraged to keep putting food out for Mouse so he ‘‘stayed local’’.

Although the food disappeared, Blasdale said they could not be certain about what was eating it.

Two weeks passed with only sightings of Mouse reported.

The Tasman District Council Dog Control team laid a humane trap in an attempt to capture him.

‘‘They didn’t manage to do that,’’ Blasdale said.

Sightings of Mouse slowly dropped off as the weeks passed.

By the end of May, there had not been any glimpses of him for a week.

On May 29, the SPCA received a call to say there was ‘‘a strange dog playing with my dog in the garden’’.

Blasdale said two staff members rushed out to the property. It was not far from the home he bolted from nearly four weeks ago.

Staff put ‘‘two and two together’’, she said.

Mouse had reunited with his sister.

‘‘Weirdly enough’’, he had found the home of his sister who lived not very far away from his foster family, Blasdale said.

After his big adventure and family reunion, Mouse is back at the SPCA looking for a forever home.

Blasdale said he seemed ‘‘quite happy’’ and ‘‘more courageous than he was before’’.

‘‘He’s lost a bit of weight, but [is] none the worse for wear.’’