The dog belonging to Queensland man Robert Weber who spent 18 days lost in bushland has been found.
A week after the Gympie MP, Tony Perrett, found Weber near a dam on his property, he came to the rescue of Weber’s dog, Nessie.
The Bull Arab cross had lost a “significant” amount of weight but was otherwise OK, having wandered onto Perrett’s property.
“She’s a very lucky dog,” Perrett said.
“We continued to keep an eye out for her, but we had pretty much given up on finding her alive. But then late Sunday afternoon, the dog just wandered into the home on the property.
“The dog is in safe hands now, she’s been fed and watered, and although she lost a fair amount of body weight, there’s no physical injuries at all.”
Perrett said Weber was elated to hear Nessie had also survived when he called him to tell him the good news.
“He was very pleased, he didn’t expect a call like that at all, saying we’d found the dog. He was as surprised as I was, because he had almost given up on finding her alive.”
Perrett marvelled at Nessie’s survival skills, telling the Guardian she had to navigate many dangers in the bush.
“In this country, there are packs of wild dogs, and they can be quite vicious, particularly on domestic dogs. And there are a lot of wedge-tailed eagles that prey on animals like that.
“But, no, it survived all of the bush elements, and we’ll be caring for it before it gets back to Robert.”
Weber had survived for two weeks on dam water and wild mushrooms after his car got bogged on his way home from the Kilkivan pub.
The 58-year-old was found by Perrett and his wife sitting underneath a tree on 24 January.
“I just kept checking the water points, and we eventually found him under a tree, frantically waving at us.
“It was almost unbelievable, because we looked and looked and looked and looked, and we’d been past this spot on numerous occasions.”
Perrett said Nessie had not followed Weber as he trekked through the bush, instead finding her own way to his home.
“We didn’t know where the dog had ended up, we had initially thought it would be easier to find the dog than to find Robert.
“After he left his vehicle and got lost on our cattle property, the dog never followed him, but we were always hopeful that it did. But when we found Robert, the dog wasn’t with him.”
He said Nessie would be nursed back to full strength, before being returned to Weber in the next couple of days.
