After being on the road full-time with their dog Trish for four years, grey nomads Vanessa and Dave Curmi are in absolute anguish after the Maltese-Shih Tzu cross went missing.
The couple were at Katherine’s Riverview Caravan Park a week ago when things went badly wrong. The 16-year-old dog, who is blind in one eye and partially deaf, started behaving strangely last Tuesday night when it woke the couple up and began running in circles.
“We sat bolt upright, very concerned because we had really never seen her behave like that before,” Vanessa told the Katherine Times. “We took her out and before we could put a lead on her she just took off. She ran into the bushes and that was the last we saw of her.”
Since then, the retired couple have left no stone unturned in their search for Trish, handing out hundreds of posters … and they have been blown away by the ‘out of this world’ response.
“Every day we go out and talk to as many people as we can about our lost little girl, and everyone we see gets straight on board,” said Vanessa. “They feel our love for her and our heartbreak and because Katherine is such a family orientated town, so close knit, I think people just feel like they have to help.”
CCTV footage from the Riverview Caravan Park shows Trish dashing out of the driveway and heading left towards town.
“The vet thinks it is a common problem when they are ready to die … they do a runner,” Dave told the Katherine Times. “The other possibility is that she had a seizure.”
The couple have extend their stay in Katherine in the desperate hope of finding Trish and will stay in the town for one more week, and will remain in the NT for several more months.
“Everyone who meets Trish falls in love with her,” Dave said. “She was on the trip of a lifetime and we just want to make sure she ends her life in a happy place.”
