Her name is Frosty, and she's a very good pupper.
Frosty may be a little way past her official pupper years, but you would never tell her. She's kind, affectionate, and chatty in the way that Alaskan Malamutes tend to be, and she has a way of looking straight through your soul when you scratch her behind the ear.
She is an older Alaskan Malamute with a near-jet-black coat, luminous eyes, and a white nose set below a pair of snowy ears. In the last few weeks, she has travelled an awfully long way to find her forever home.
When Frosty was found by local rangers in Hamilton South a little while back, she was in a bad way. She was emaciated, suffering from skin and ear infections, and looking and feeling worse for wear.
Rangers tried to find her owners, but even after several weeks, no one came forward.
The professionals at Fletcher Vet gave Frosty some much-needed care, helped her gain some healthy weight, and treated her for skin allergies, but no owner had come forward yet.
In a statement, the City of Newcastle said the newly adopted staff member was microchipped but not on any register, so the hunt was on for a rescue organisation willing to foster her.
Countless emails were sent, and pleas were made far and wide to find Frosty a good home as she settled into her halfway stay with local council rangers.
After many emails and pleas for help, Husky Rescue Western Australia, a Husky and Malamute-specific rescue organisation in WA, contacted the team and said they would be willing to take Frosty if the council could help them raise funds for the long flight to the other side of Australia.
"Thankfully, a local rescue group stepped in to assist with the funds, and Frosty was booked in for her flight," a city spokesperson said in a statement.
A Newcastle ranger named Corey accompanied Frosty to the airport, where she began her long journey west, across the Nullarbor, to her new home in Western Australia.
At home, her ranger friends, who recently sent two other dogs to Victoria to find adoptive homes, were watching her flight via an airline tracker as Frosty made the near-4000km trek.
We're told Frosty has since arrived safe and is being well looked after on the other side of the Red Centre, waiting to find her new home.
More than 65,000 dogs live in the Newcastle local government area, which has one of the state's highest dog ownership rates.
In March, the City of Newcastle's rangers ran a microchipping drive at Lambton Park to encourage local pet owners to chip and register their animals so that they can be returned if they get lost.
City rangers return about 100 lost but microchipped pets to their owners yearly. However, out-of-date registration details and a lack of a collar, ID tag, or microchip make it much harder for them to make these reunions possible.
Deputy mayor Declan Clausen said at the time educational events encouraging responsible pet ownership were part of the city's 'Dogs in Open Spaces' plan.
The city's Dogs in Open Spaces plan has been used to inform community education, encourage responsible dog ownership, and guide the provision, improvement, and management of off-leash dog areas. In July last year, the council opened Newcastle's third fenced off-leash dog park in Maryland.
