The boys gave her a lift to see if they’d be able to carry her up. On their estimation, Miss Piggy tipped the scales at about 40KG [88 pounds]. On flat ground, this probably wouldn’t be an issue, but we didn’t want to risk dropping or dragging her down the bank.

The face says it all…

The boys scavenged a strong branch and threaded it through the handles, lifting Miss Piggy in her bag up above the lantana and vines. Rather than scramble directly up the bank, we took the path of least resistance and followed a slightly less steep angle towards the road. I didn’t take any action shots because I walked in front, taking out vines and lantana to clear a path. The boys put in a mammoth effort, including the 3 meter vertical climb to the road.

Miss Piggy was successfully delivered to the side of the road after about a 30 minute climb up through the bush. Note the disapproving glance at the compression sock/thong [flip-flop] combo.

We carried Miss Piggy along the side of the road up the where we’d parked.

Safely in the back of the car and down the windy mountain road, Miss Piggy was all smiles.

During the trip home she seemed to relax a lot more. When we opened the back of the car, we were greeted with a different dog – the little tail was going a mile a minute.

We gave Miss Piggy some dinner, and set about seeing whether we could track down her owners. I posted on a FB page for lost pets in the area surrounding where we’d found her, and miraculously, got a message about 30 mins later. The guy was from a suburb about 15KMs north of the creek where she’d been hiding out. He was absolutely sure this was his dog, who’d been lost since Jun 30 after wandering out of their yard. We were stoked until he referred to the dog as “Bob,” and our hearts sank thinking he had lost a male dog. However, he confirmed that “Elly-Bobby” (named after Ricky Bobby) was indeed his little girl, with various physical characteristics to prove it. Bobby’s dad had mounted massive FB and poster campaigns to find her, and had been searching for hours every evening since she went missing, never giving up hope that he’d find her.

Bobby’s happy reunion with her much loved dad. She was overwhelmed with joy to see him – such a beautiful thing. We have no idea what she’d been doing between 30 June and 23 Jul when we found her. Her condition was surprisingly good for a pup that had been homeless for nearly a month. We also have no idea how she came to be in such an isolated part of the bush, with no signs of injury and only basic signs of exposure. We’d speculated that perhaps she was picked up and later dumped, or that she’d found a temporary home but hadn’t stuck around. Whatever the story, we were just happy to have been in the right place at the right time to be able to help her.