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Gadget the detector dog, an essential worker, received special attention when she broke her leg on Stewart Island.
When Gadget the detector dog broke her leg during lockdown on Stewart Island, there were no planes or ferries scheduled to take her on an urgent trip to the vet.
Instead, a special ferry service was put on, just to get the essential worker to Invercargill.
The nine-year-old jack russell fox terrier cross is well known for her work ensuring Bluff and Stewart Island vessels are free of rodents, and has spent much of her life working with the Department of Conservation.
Past missions have taken her to Fiordland, the Chatham Islands, the subantarctic Islands and the Marlborough Sounds.
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She was out for an evening stroll and recreational rat hunt at home on Stewart Island on the weekend with owner Sandy King when she slipped and fell about two metres from a rock.
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A special ferry service was put on to take Sandy King and Gadget, the Stewart Island-based detector dog, to the vet after Gadget broke her leg during lockdown.
“She landed squarely on all four feet and she screamed,” King said.
“I picked her up within a couple of seconds and could see she was very reluctant to put any weight on her foot.”
A former vet who lives on the island confirmed it was likely a broken leg, but with no planes flying and no ferries scheduled due to the country being in Covid-19 alert level 3, King could not get Gadget to the vet in Invercargill.
When she heard about the dilemma, Stewart Island Experience manager Kylie Bakker immediately came to the rescue, scheduling a special service ferry to get Gadget across the Foveaux Strait.
At 8am on Sunday the ferry left Oban with King, Gadget and Gadget’s understudy Mawson on board.
The vet confirmed Gadget had broken one of her foreleg bones that would need surgery to insert a tiny pin to stabilise the joint.
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Gadget the detector dog has a few months of recovery before she will be allowed back at work.
Two days later the trio returned home on a scheduled ferry service, and King hopes she can restrain Gadget for a few months of recovery time and to ensure she will ultimately get back to work.
“I’ll be easing her into it very gently, with the less physically demanding jobs like advocacy work and school visits,” she said.
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Gadget the detector dog gets special ferry crossing after breaking leg - Stuff.co.nz
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