Dog makes it to NZ after year-long journey

A couple are overjoyed their three-legged dog has arrived from China after a year of planning.

Shelter dog Murphy stayed with Auckland couple Julia Gabel and David Ball in Beijing for six months in early 2017 before they returned to New Zealand.

“The thought of returning him to the shelter where he’d lived his whole life was too hard to bear," said Ms Gabel. “Murphy had very little chance of ever being adopted in Beijing, with one of the main reasons that he only has three legs - this apparently is something that turned people off him.”

Murphy’s leg was amputated after he was hit by a car when he was less than a year old and was found by an animal shelter worker. When staying with the couple he went from being unable to walk down a street, to walking freely.

Ball said the most expensive part was destination agent charges in Malaysia, where Murphy needed to stay in quarantine for six months.

The total cost of the process was $16,000 after Mirabel Dog Care in Kuala Lumpur offered subsidised accommodation which lowered the cost from $24,700.

A spokesperson for Ministry for Primary Industries said that he had to go to a country that met the IHS: Cats and Dogs and is approved to export cats and dogs to New Zealand where rabies is absent or well controlled.

On March 23, 2017, a Give A Little Page for Murphy was set up and crowdsourcing began. Murphy boarded his flight from China to Malaysia on September 12, 2017, where the six month quarantine process began.

Six months later, on April 6, 2018, Gabel has taken to Facebook to announce his arrival.

“To everyone - friends, family, and people we’ve never met - who helped get him here. From donating or sharing posts to answering questions and putting up with endless Murphy boasting, thank you.”

Murphy was dropped at the couple’s doorstep on Easter Monday and is enjoying having a garden to play in.