By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
FROM now on, Tilly is also known as Melbourne’s Red Dog.
Tilly had been missed and missing for six months after jumping her Bayswater owner’s fence, terrified by New Year’s Eve fireworks.
Owner Emma Redfern’s hope for a reunion had by stages dimmed after she plastered up posters across Melbourne’s east, pored through lost pets websites and spread the word with 2000 shares on Facebook.
By chance, one of those Facebook friends last month saw a posted picture of the four-year-old labrador-kelpie cross on Greater Dandenong Council Lost and Found Pets Facebook page.
Somehow, Tilly had been found by the council’s animal management officers cowering under a school portable in Dandenong North during the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
It had taken several hours to coax the timid pooch, who was well-fed but suffering rashes around her eyes, out of her comfortable zone.
As it turned out, the council had been unable to contact Ms Redfern because Tilly’s microchip details pointed to her previous owner in Cardinia Shire.
Ms Redfern filmed her emotional reunion with Tilly at The Lost Dogs Home in Cranbourne on Friday the 13th – described by her as “the best day of my life”.
“Who would think our luck turned on Friday the 13th?”
Aptly, it has been posted on a new Facebook page Tilly, Melbourne’s Red Dog with a thank you note to all who had helped with the search.
On the video, it’s clear it took Tilly a while to believe that she was seeing and hearing her owner again. She sits with her ears pricked up for a long time before unleashing her relief with furious tail-wags and great bounds.
Her three boys Jay, Ben and TJ had “dreamt of that day for six months and understand there’s a new house rule.
“She’s an indoors dog now,” Ms Redfern said.
