Happy to be back in the doghouse

After 24 days, Brian Morris thought he would never see his beloved beagle again.

He had spent hours searching farmland and bush near his home at Carters Beach, near Westport, for his lost pet Bunty.

But on Tuesday evening he heard whining at his back gate.

He went to investigate and "lo and behold, there she was". Bunty was back, 3kg lighter, but in "pretty good nick".

She was more than well enough to walk along Carters Beach the next morning.

The seven-year-old purebred and her relatives, Zoe, 3, and Lucky, 5, "did a runner" on July 15.

Zoe and Lucky returned home the next day but Bunty - who had a dislocated shoulder when she disappeared - was nowhere to be found.

Two weeks later, Mr Morris said, he had fairly much given up hope of finding his dog alive.

"I put her bowl away out of sight, finally believing and accepting that she was probably gone for good."

Mr Morris said he was certain Bunty's collar had become snared in bush on nearby farmland, immobilising her.

He said she must have survived on rainwater and the "odd weka that was silly enough to wander by".

Once Bunty had lost enough weight around her neck, she would have been able to slip free of her collar.

One of her claws had been worn right down to the paw which indicated she had desperately been trying to scratch free, he said.

Mr Morris said Bunty was a loyal pet, and he was elated to have her back.

"You just never know, do you - never give up hoping," he said.

"Everybody I've spoken to since she's come back is just amazed that she survived, especially under the circumstances."

- NZPA