Dapto couple Erin Fitzgerald and Ashley Peters spent the first hours of the new year searching for their puppy.
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While they were at a New Year’s Eve party, the four-month-old cross staffie/ bullmastiff escaped their yard, presumably after being spooked by fireworks, and found himself on the wrong side of the train tracks.
It wasn’t until midday on January 1 that a guard at Dapto train station found young Jaxon and contacted his distraught owners.
“We thought the yard was secure but we’re assuming he was so scared by the fireworks that he managed to jump up over the fence,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
“We got home around 2am on New Year’s Day and spent the next few hours searching for him.
“We posted all over Facebook on community groups and we’re so thankful for everyone who shared it and searched for him.”
Jaxon was not the only pet in dire straits after New Year’s Eve fireworks with over 50 posts about missing pets on one Facebook site alone.
Lost and Found Pets Illawarra administrator Nicole Harrison said the group had tried to prepare for the festive season – placing 8000 flyers in mailboxes across the region with tips on how to keep pets safe during fireworks.
“We get a couple of posts about missing pets every day – but on the nights there are fireworks we get inundated,” she said.
“On New Year’s Eve 2016 there were 130 missing pets posted to our page – this year was half that, so we hope we have helped to raise awareness.
“That said, one of the missing dogs was found deceased this New Year’s Eve after getting out and being hit by a car. This fireworks season I know of six deaths – four hit by cars, two by trains.
“It’s just devastating – and the reason why we operate this site – so we can do our bit to get pets home to their owners and out of harm’s way.”
Ms Harrison said they had put the call-out for volunteers over the festive season, and had 30 residents in different suburbs across the Illawarra ready to go out searching if need be.
“Around 20 of those did need to go out on New Year’s Eve and early the next day to find these pets,” she said. “We found the last one (on Thursday) and reunited it with its owner.”
With Australia Day fireworks still to go, Ms Harrison urged pet owners to keeping pets indoors, to turn on music or the TV and to close blinds, during the displays.
“Keep your yard secured – although most pet owners don’t realise that when a dog is panicked, it will jump or climb far higher or dig far deeper than you’d expect,” she said.
“Fireworks just make them so anxious – you find them terrified and panting under cars, in people’s garages, all over the place. It’s really sad.”