Parents reunited with pooch after three days missing

The owners of perhaps the most adventurous Jack Russell x chihuahua to visit Bunbury have praised the community in helping find their beloved missing pooch.

Maxi mysteriously disappeared from his grandmother’s Carey Park home on Saturday afternoon and three days later – after sleepless nights and an extensive search mission which included plastering signs across Bunbury – he was reunited with his parents this morning.

Nicole Carmody and Darren Page described the unfolding of events as a “whirlwind of emotions” and say the outpouring of community support had been overwhelming.

“It was such a big effort and was so nice to see people rally behind us,” Ms Carmody said.

The Perth couple were in Bunbury for the weekend and when Ms Carmody travelled home Saturday night for work and Mr Page went out to go fishing, Maxi made his escape.

However, the circumstances behind the one-year-old pup’s disappearance could forever be a mystery, with the home and fences surrounding the property completely locked and no evidence of Maxi burrowing his way out.

“We thought he may have been stolen because our other dog was still in the yard,” Mr Page said.

The couple put up signs across Bunbury and started a Facebook page before offering a $1000 reward for their cherished fur kid.

“Everyone was so great spreading the word,” Ms Carmody said.

“The page got 22,000 views in two days and hundreds of shares — we just really want to thank everyone.”

While Maxi’s travels will never fully be known, Mr Page believes he “covered so much ground” with sightings of the pup dodging traffic on Bussell Highway, running across the oval at Bunbury Catholic College and even Bunbury Speedway.

Mr Page was unable to sleep this morning at 4am and so went to “hang out” around Bussell Highway in the hopes Maxi would make another appearance, the couple then received the phone call they had been hoping for about 7.30am.

The couple say while Maxi was “pretty tired” and smelt a little like cat food, he was in good spirits.