The Roving Red Dog of the Far North

by Karen
(North Queensland)

 

The box office hit Red Dog is based on a true story of a kelpie who travelled thousands of miles in search of his owners, with many dog lovers lending their support to help the dog along his travels.

Now a north Queensland dog ‘‘Rusty’’, who went missing between Charters Towers and Townsville in November last year, and has since attracted a number of suspected sightings between Townsville and Cairns in recent weeks.

“We were up on Hervey’s Range between Townsville and Charters Towers when Rusty went missing,” said Jessica Schollum.

“We put ads in the Townsville newspaper for about a month but have had the most people call in from Cairns and those outlying areas,” she said.

“The community has been amazing and some have searched the streets together to look for Rusty.”

She said despite never meeting any of her Cairns helpers, she was touched that they cared enough to report sightings of Rusty.

Some Cairns residents have left food out for Rusty just in case. Many more have posted suspected sightings of Rusty to the online Facebook site, Lost and Found Pets In Cairns.

People from across north Queensland had rallied behind the search. The public support has been fantastic and allows us to build a profile and possibly predict his movements on the Facebook site.

Jessica Schollum has since received a number of sightings by concerned pet lovers from Townsville to Cairns, and said a $1000 reward was being offered for Rusty’s return.

We all hope this has a happy ending...........

If you liked this story, you might also like to see the movie trailer and review of Red Dog