Durban - A Westville family are delighted to be reunited with their Great Dane cross pitbull who they believed had been dognapped from their property two months ago.
The dog named Gracie and two other pitbulls mysteriously disappeared from the yard, said dog owner, Natasha Scott.
She said when they checked the fence, they could not find any holes where their dogs might have got out of the property.
Two of the dogs were found three days later wandering on the M13 in Westville.
Scott did not give up hope and enlisted the help of local neighbourhood watch and pet rescuer, Andreas Mathios, to try to recover Gracie. The dog had been with the family for about year, since she was a pup.
In the two months since, Scott received several reports of a dog wandering around between Warspite Road, the N2 and King Cetshwayo (Jan Smuts) Highway.
What followed was a heartwarming story of hope.
“I think someone took her for dog fighting. We never gave up hope. Every day I went to the roadside and left two bowls of food in the bushes. The bush was too dense to enter and at night when someone saw a dog we would go out with torches. I think Gracie was traumatised and scared,” Scott said.
On Monday morning after dropping off her children at school, Scott drove past the road again for another glance into the bushes and was thrilled to spot Gracie.
“She was sitting next to the bowls in the bush. I think Gracie and I were shocked to see one another. It was a staredown. I knelt and called her name. When I took her into the car she went ballistic with joy. When she reunited with the kids and the other dogs she was even more thrilled. After that it was like a tornado. She bowled us over and there were tears of joy.”
Daily News