By Gabriella Vukman and Tanya Steele
A lucky local greyhound from Ferntree Gully has made it home safely after capturing the hearts of the outer east community.
The beloved but timid pooch went missing in late May and made it from Ferntree Gully all the way up into the forests of Sherbrooke in the Yarra Ranges.
“Simba, the three-year-old timid brindle greyhound who lived in the forest for 15 days is home safe after help from the amazing community and group of heroes who brought him home,” said owner Kim on Facebook after she got him home.
The greyhound owner is ‘incredibly grateful’ to the countless community members who called, walked, looked and helped to return her dog home.
Simba went missing on May 28, after Kim’s son was returning home after having walked both of the family’s greyhounds. Just as Kim’s son crossed the threshold into their home, Simba spooked, suddenly slipping out of his collar and disappearing into the street.
“We did a bit of a search in the afternoon. My son had followed Simba for as long as he possibly could, but being a greyhound, he’s pretty fast. My son was beside himself,” Kim said.
Kim put out a post on her local ‘Greyhound and Co’ walking Facebook group.
Kim said from the second the post went out there, her greyhound community just sprang into action.
“Tuesday night, we had people that I wasn’t even aware of walking the streets looking for him,” she said.
“There had been a sighting on the Tuesday afternoon.”
The search party focussed their efforts along the bike path that was often frequented by Kim and her dogs, figuring that Simba would go somewhere he was familiar with.
“We made up flyers and had people here and people down at Officeworks printing the flyers whilst the others walked the streets, putting them in letterboxes and on lampposts,” Kim said.
“I received a text message from a lovely lady in Tecoma on the Friday morning saying that her husband had seen him on the corner round Kookaburra Dell in Tecoma,” she said.
As the week progressed the Hills community flocked together, searching all day and night for Simba.
Kim said that they were getting a little bit concerned because there hadn’t really been any sightings.
“On Sunday morning, instead of walking around lake Knox like our usual dog-walking group does, they decided to change their walk so that we could scour the streets of Ferntree Gully,” she said.
After days and days without a sighting, Kim received a call in the wee hours of the morning from someone who had been driving around Belgrave and had spotted a Brindle Greyhound on the side of the road.
According to Kim, the caller stopped the car, got out and tried to grab him before he ran off into the forest.
Kim said that she got up straight away and drove up and down the road for about three hours on that Sunday morning, with no sightings of Simba.
“Somebody suggested to set up food stations near the latest sighting and they offered up some trail cameras for us to use,” she said.
After days a few more days of walking the forest, Kim decided to limit the hundreds of community helpers to a concentrated group. With so many people out searching for Simba, the odds were that the greyhound would be scared further away.
Kim said, “I was getting phone calls from people I don’t even know saying, “sorry to bother you, I just wanted to see if there’s anything I can do to help you with this?”
“It was just completely overwhelming.”
On the eleventh day Simba had been missing, Kim received a phone call with good news. Ben, one of the searchers, had seen the greyhound.
Upon walking through the forest, Ben spied Simba but decided against jumping on him and grabbing him for fear that Simba would get a fright. Instead, Ben video the greyhound walking away down towards the creek.
Kim said the next day the group repositioned the cameras again and were able to actually catch him on camera coming to get the food and then going back into the forest.
On Wednesday 12 June , Kim was returning to re-stock the food and Simba just ‘stood’ up and Kim immediately began talking to him, although he looked terrified.
While talking to Sherri from Pearl’s Army – a dedicated online volunteer group that helps people reunite with their dogs on her mobile, Kim put the food out, waited and slowly began feeding and reconnecting with her pet.
Eventually Kim was able to put a lead around his neck and get him back to the car – Simba went to the vet the next day and apart from some weight loss the dog was completely unscathed.
“He’s actually gained a little confidence from his experience,” she said.
Kim has pledged to visit a few elderly people in the area who were concerned for the greyhound and said she can’t quite place why the canine’s story has touched so many.
“It could have been that it could have been the fact that he was very scared and timid and that comes at people’s heartstrings,” she said.
Kim said that the journey of finding her dog emphasised the extensive strength of communities and what they can achieve when they pull together.
“I can’t describe it. It was just unbelievable,” Kim said.
“I wouldn’t have Simba home were it not for the community,” she said.
Simba’s online Facebook group has continued to give updates on Simba and has since brought news of other lost dogs for people to keep an eye out for.
