Harley the ‘miracle dog’, missing for six days, reunites with owners after strangers spark social media search

A widespread social media search has led to the discovery of a beagle who went missing for almost a week after escaping from a dog grooming business in Adelaide’s south. 

Owner Casey Knight told ABC Radio Adelaide that her beloved pet named Harley was eventually found in a creek in Hawthorn on Monday night after the help of good Samaritans online.

“He escaped from the groomers about six days ago now and everyone’s been on high alert since trying to find him.”

Ms Knight said dozens of strangers online helped to track him down by posting updates in various Facebook community pages, which were shared by hundreds of people.

Reported sightings of Harley spanned at least seven suburbs starting in Adelaide’s south and stretching across the CBD through to the eastern suburbs.

“We had an incredible amount of sightings and almost a live tracking feed from everybody in Adelaide telling us where he was found,” she said. 

“His face was everywhere and we had beautiful people putting up flyers.

Ms Knight said Harley would have ran up to 25 kilometres in an hour and a half “at the speed of lightning”. 

“He had quite the adventure running all around Adelaide,” she said.

“He was seen first in Glenside running across Fullarton Road to Dulwich … then down into the city along South Terrace, then in Forestville, then in Goodwood at the tram station, Unley Park and then finally we got him in Hawthorn.”

Ms Knight thanked the community for their help in tracking down Harley through a Facebook post, which has garnered more than 2,500 likes and hundreds of comments from strangers expressing their relief over his discovery. 

“I’ve been following Harley’s story and like a lot of people have had very little sleep worrying about him with no idea where to start looking. The terror I felt when I was following his sightings last night at peak hour was real,” one user wrote. 

Ms Knight said she was “unbelievably happy” to be reunited with Harley — who was notorious for getting himself into trouble. 

“He unfortunately earlier this year had a tumble down a 30 metre cliff at my partner’s beach shack … it was raining and he slipped and went 20 metres down but not a broken bone.

“He is amazing, I don’t know what it is, he’s more probably a cat than a dog.”