RESIDENT REUNITED WITH DOG MISSING AFTER LAKE ŌHAU VILLAGE FIRE

Norman Mackay lost his home in the Lake Ōhau village fire but on Thursday was reunited with his beloved dog, Milo.

The 5-year-old kelpie got scared and ran off during the evacuation of the village in the early hours of Sunday morning when one of New Zealand’s largest wildfires burned across more than 5000 hectares, destroying 46 homes.

Mackay said he was afraid his pet had perished in the fire but was contacted by Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) on Monday to say a firefighter had seen a dog matching Milo’s description but could not get near it and it ran away down a gully.

“That was the first time I knew she was alive,” he said.

“I felt so good. I felt really elated.”

It was a feeling of elation again on Thursday when, about 4pm, Fenz confirmed the dog and owner had been reunited.

Milo bounded up to Mackay when they were reunited, licking him and jumping all over him.

“She is excited to be home and she is not injured in any way and does not appear to have lost weight,’’ Mackay said.

“She was reunited with Mack [Mackay’s other dog] and let her lick his face.’’

As soon as the pooch was home, it ate a little food and then went straight to sleep.

“She is exhausted.’’

In the lead-up to finding Milo, Mackay brought the dog’s mat and food and water to the village.

“I thought she might come back and eat,” he said.

However, when they went back the next day the food had not been touched.

“I thought: oh my God, she has gone up the lake, or she has gone somewhere else, but she has not come back home because it is all unfamiliar smells.”

Then Mackay got another call saying Milo had been seen again but had run off once again.

Then there was a third sighting on Thursday morning – a farmer known to Mackay woke up at 6am to a dog barking outside.

He went to the door and there was Milo. Again it ran off before the farmer could get it inside.

Mackay got Milo almost five years ago from a family in Christchurch that had just welcomed a baby.

Mackay said he took to Milo immediately.

“Milo is a very energetic, very powerful little dog. She loves the outdoors. She sleeps next to me in my bed at night, she has got her own little bed there. She is a dog with character, lovely dog, lovely dog.

“Her and Mack, that is my German shepherd, they get on very well together.”

Mackay also lost two cats in the fire and is not optimistic they survived.

He thought being a kelpie had helped Milo survive.

“She is a kelpie, they are bloody resilient dogs kelpies.”

Mackay and his wife have been residents of Lake Ōhau village since 1992.

He went tramping in the area “and I just fell in love with it”, he said.

He and his wife built a home in Huxley Terrace, at Lake Ōhau, as a holiday home but soon decided to quit their jobs in Auckland and move to the village permanently.

Their home was destroyed in the fire.

Mackay said he was “doing OK’’ after the fire.

“I handle stress pretty well. My wife is not coping too well,” he said.

He was woken at 2.20am on Sunday by someone banging on his door.

“I went outside and saw a wall of flame about 2 kilometres away and thought: wow that is big, and it is coming this way with the wind.

“So I got dressed and as I got dressed the fire department came through and they said: get out, get out, it is raging out there. If you don’t get going now, then you will die.’’

Mackay and his wife got in a vehicle each and while Mack went with him, his wife tried to get Milo into the other car.

“Milo took fright with the fire and the fire engines and ran away.’’