Lost and found

By Lachlan Ellis

Not every lost pet story ends happily, but one local dog who wandered away from home and was gone for nearly a week has been found almost unscathed.

Zeus the dog escaped his Myrniong home on the morning of Friday 24 November, and was found in Ballan on the afternoon of Tuesday 28 November – almost five days later.
Owner Honni Wilsher said she and her family were beside themselves with worry while Zeus was missing.

“He jumped over about a seven garden sleeper high fence. He normally goes everywhere with my husband or I, but on this particular occasion, we both couldn’t take him, so we locked him up. My husband left, and watching back on our camera footage, we saw he cleared the fence 90 seconds later and started chasing my husband’s ute,” Ms Wilsher told the Moorabool News.

“We were shattered. Many many tears were shed over the days he was missing. It’s a miracle we got him back…we did nothing but search all day and night for those five days or so. He’s gone down the Western Highway to Ballan…I don’t know how he didn’t get hit by a car.”

Honni and her sister Sandy took to social media to ask for help finding Zeus, and also put up posters asking for people to send word of any sightings.

She said the response from the community, and people’s willingness to help and report sightings of Zeus, had been amazing.

“Words can’t describe our gratitude. Thank God he went to Ballan and decided to put his head down there. The community of Ballan and the surrounding suburbs have been incredible. I’m getting emotional even talking about it,” she said.

“He’s passed over the reservoir, it’s a small gap on the bridge there…words really aren’t enough to express our gratitude for everyone that looked for him.”

In the end, it was Honni’s father-in-law that found Zeus under a tree near Crossroads Trading on Old Melbourne Road, and a vet said it was incredible Zeus got away with just an injured foot.

Plans for a sausage sizzle in Ballan to thank the community for their efforts in helping find Zeus are currently in the works.