By Callum Ludwig
A dashing Dachshund was emotionally reunited with his family on the first weekend of May after 10 long weeks.
Bruno became the subject of searches throughout the Yarra Valley after escaping from a pet sitter in Launching Place on 16 February.
Bruno’s owner Darlene Young said they were extremely worried.
“We came down from Mudgee in New South Wales down to the Yarra Valley seven times in the 10 and a half weeks he was missing,” she said.
“It’s hard because we had to we had to work so we could only come down on the weekend, we were leaving on Friday night driving all the way down there, walking around and looking for him and then driving back in the early hours of Sunday morning because my partner Andrew has to start work on Sunday night.”
Mudgee is an over 10-hour drive from the Yarra Valley, located in the Central West area of New South Wales.
Upon hearing about Bruno’s disappearance and being two of the many local residents who felt awful for the Young family, Sherri Johnston and Tracey Kelly helped lead the dedicated search and rescue effort for Bruno in the Yarra Ranges.
Mt Evelyn resident Ms Kelly said they started a campaign of printing things about Bruno and putting them up on the Lilydale to Warburton trail which Bruno seemed to use.
“I think everybody on the rail trail knew him and people would stop and ask about him when Darlene was there, it was plastered everywhere on, every community site and by doing that, that’s how we got sightings,” she said.
“The whole Yarra Valley was looking for him in the end.”
A ‘Help Find Bruno’ Facebook page that was set up garnered over 1000 followers, giving regular updates on sightings over the months he was missing.
Ms Kelly said their task was made harder by the fact Bruno would bolt if anyone tried to approach him.
“We had to put it out there in our posters to not approach Bruno at all, so instead we were trying to ground him somewhere, so he felt safe,” she said.
“We had the owners sending down scent items to be ripped up and placed, we had trails of food everywhere and people were putting out food stations for him, but we seemed to be one step behind the whole time.”
A number of lost animal assistance groups noted the situation and came onboard to help or offer advice including Pearl’s Army based in the Cardinia area, which Ms Johnston is a part of, Annette from the My Dog Is Missing group and Lyn from the Milly’s Search and Trap Community Group Facebook group.
After weeks of Bruno being sighted at townships all over the Valley, even venturing out to Gruyere and Coldstream and seemingly crossing the Warburton Highway multiple times.
Bruno was at one point almost pinned down on a property in Gruyere, but the search team only had access to a neighbour’s property and he moved on.
Not long after Bruno was caught on camera at a property in Coldstream belonging to Tasma Murdoch and her partner Nick, who were aware of the search and kindly opened up access to their property to help bring Bruno home.
Ms Murdoch said they first saw him on their property around 30 March but he hadn’t reappeared until late April.
“I kept in contact with Tracey after we first sighted him and she contacted me around 17 April to say he had been in the area, so that’s when I started putting out food for him here to try and attract him to our property and ground him so that he could be captured,” she said.
“We first spotted him on our property on 21 April, we came around the side of the garage and he was coming up our paddock and as soon as he spotted us, I turned around and went to go in the house and he just ran,”
“I was putting out sardines which are his favourite food and the scent items before he managed to ground him and I think if no one grounded him on a property, that dog wouldn’t have survived unfortunately because it’s getting colder.”
Video footage showed Bruno stepping foot into the trap just before 6pm on Tuesday 30 April and was reunited with his family the very next weekend.
Ms Young said the moment they found out he was safe, everyone was in tears.
“He’s going to be one very spoiled little dog though we still don’t let him outside without him being on a lead because he’s still traumatised about everything that’s happened,” she said.
“He went to the vet on Monday and apart from a few little cuts on his ears, he’s got a clean bill of health, the vet was amazed at what great condition he was in after fending for himself for 10 and a half weeks,”
“We can’t thank everyone enough for helping bring Bruno home.”
Once Bruno is settled back into home life again, the Young family intend to revisit the Yarra Valley and hold a gathering for all the community members who helped in the search effort to bring Bruno home and will contact the Star Mail to share details.
