It’s something no pet owner wants to experience.
A family dog, with little experience in the bush, goes missing in remote, rugged and very unfamiliar terrain on a camping trip.
To make things worse, the family had to search in heatwave conditions and brave smoke from backburning as firefighters battled bushfires nearby.
Kiah, an 18-month-old Rhodesian ridgeback from Sydney’s northern beaches, ran off from her owner Chris Gamarra while he was camping in the Maragle State Forest, north-west of the Kosciuszko National Park.
Mr Gamarra searched day and night trying to find his family’s beloved pet, but when he had no success, his partner Tina Lidden left their children with family in Sydney to join the search.
“He searched literally for three days, day and night. I think he was going to bed at 3:00[am] and waking up at 5:00[am] and just kept going in the hope that he would find her,” Ms Lidden said.
“After day two of not getting her I went down, left our two little kids at home with [their] grandparents, thinking, ‘This would be easy, we’ll get her’.”
