Porirua vet offers $7500 reward to help find runaway husky

A Porirua vet is putting out an SOS call to teenagers these school holidays for help tracking down a missing member of her pack.

Two-year-old husky Luna managed to open a back door and run away two months ago, but recent sightings have ignited hope that she's still alive.

Huskies know how to open doors - and it's that knowledge which could have led to two of them escaping from a Porirua vet.

"One of them just popped their feet down on there [the door handle] and got straight out," veterinarian Rhea Hurley tells Newshub.

That dog was Luna, a two-year-old husky who ran away in July. Her sister Chell made her way back and every day since Hurley and Ben Moores have been searching for the elusive canine.

"We suspect she's coming out in the morning or in the evening and staying hidden during the day and at night," Hurley says.

It was early one morning a week after she disappeared that Luna appeared on a trail camera, the only time since she went missing.

More trail cameras are being put up in the area after three possible public sightings in the last week at Bothamley Park.

These give Luna's owners hope she's still alive. To encourage her back, they're also leaving a bowl of food on the ground.

"If she's looking around for food rather than having to catch something she can smell this and come to it," Hurley says.

And to help encourage the public, the couple is offering a cash reward of $7500 to find Luna.

"I think it just keeps it in people's minds and helps them realise we're serious about it," Hurley says.

So serious they're hoping to recruit an army of local school students too over the school holidays.

"I think they'd be the perfect people to help us out," she adds.

And if they can help make this family whole again, they'll have a lot of pocket money to show for it.