THE tale of a war veteran and his missing dog continues to tug at the nation's heartstrings.
Good samaritans from near and far have come out of the woodwork to help reunite heartbroken 92-year-old Ray Robinson with his canine companion, Billy.
So far, sadly, to no avail. But that just might change on Saturday when even more experienced trackers join the masses combing the scrub for Billy.
Billy, a kelpie cross ridgeback from the Sydney suburb of Concord, has been missing for almost a month.
Mr Robinson, a World War II veteran, had Billy riding shotgun when the pair was involved in an accident at Toongabbie on April 23.
It’s understood Billy, spooked by the crash, jumped through the broken windscreen and disappeared from the intersection of Old Windsor and Oaks Rd without a trace.
That’s when family friends say something truly heart-warming happened.
Ray and Billy’s story resonated across social media, television and newspaper; a Facebook page was created to spread the word and a crowd-funding page was built to raise money to finance the ongoing search.
In just two days more than $2000 was raised and now reports have emerged that experienced trackers want to join the search party in coming days.
“It’s quite amazing, the community spirit is just fantastic,” family friend Wendy Allen said.
“We still haven’t found him but everyone is wanting to bring him home and reunite him with Ray,” Ms Allen, based in Parkes, more than 330kms from Sydney, said.
A month on, Old Toongabbie residents still gather near the crash site on their weekends and in their spare time to search for Billy.
Toongabbie woman Karen Bagshaw, a complete stranger to Mr Robinson and his family, has spearheaded the campaign to reunite the pair.
She still holds out hope Billy could be hiding out in nearby bushland.
“We’ve got some bush trackers going through the bush at various times, some now and others are coming on the weekend,” she said.
“They’re volunteering their time, but the bush is so big he could be hiding anywhere in there.
“We’ve had at least 30 volunteers, possibly more, it’s been incredible.”
Ms Bagshaw says she’s overwhelmed with the response from the public so far and hopes there's a happy ending.
“They did everything together,” She said.
►For more information or to find out how you can help, visit the dedicated Facebook page
►To contribute financially to the search for Billy, click here
