A 21 day search for Josephine ends in pure joy at the Koppies
ROOSEVELT PARK – Josephine, the long-haired German Shepherd spent 21 lonely days at the Melville Koppies Nature Reserve to finally be reunited with her favourite human.
After she spent three long weeks at the Melville Koppies Nature Reserve, Josephine, the long haired German Shepherd, was finally reunited with her owner, Alex Zarmakoupis.
On 14 March Zarmakoupis was confronted with the disheartening news that Josephine, who had been by his side for nine years, had run off.
“She is traditionally very skittish, so she does not like loud noises.”
He explained that on the day she went missing, their gardener had mistakenly left the garage door open and Josephine made her way out and sat by the driveway. Zarmakoupis thought that after she heard the lawn mower go on, Josephine bolted away.
He said neighbours told him that they saw her run towards Beyers Naude Drive.
“It was amazing that she was not hit by a car,” said Zarmakoupis. His gardener tried to run after her for about 5km.
The next day he called several vets and visited the SPCA to no avail. “I then emailed them every day thereafter asking about her and I also shared a post on my Facebook which was then shared to community pages,” he explained.
Two weeks came and went and Zarmakoupis was left to assume the worst had happened. Then, exactly three weeks to the day when Josephine went missing, a Melville Koppies Facebook post reignited the hope that she was still alive. Zarmakoupis said the post explained that a German Shepherd had been seen at the Koppies for three weeks and to call if it was yours.
He wasted no time and called the reserve where he spoke to the chairperson, Wendy Carstens. She explained that every night for those three weeks she would leave out food and water for Josephine as she would not let anyone near her.
“In desperation, we contacted Woodrock Sanctuary to come and try to entice her into a cage,” said Carstens.
The night before the sanctuary would have fetched her, Carstens got a call from Zarmakoupis. The next morning Zarmakoupis was at the Koppies with Carstens to find his beloved Josephine.
“Just one call of ‘Josephine’ brought her bounding out of the bushes and into the arms of her human, the ecstatic reunion of dog and man was an unforgettable sight,” said Carstens.
Zarmakoupis thanked everybody who helped bring Josephine back home.
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