Hello everyone we are Scott & Ruth and we are life long dog lovers. We're not after sympathy but just a helping hand as well as a means to get our story out there. Last Friday evening 20th February 2026, our 2 pet dogs Luna 5 year old Catahoula X (she is wombat like in shape and stature) and Charlie our Golden Labrador 14 months (still a pup) slipped out and took off into the evening, we scoured the streets until the early hours of Saturday morning but no luck, they had got out once or twice previously over the last 8 months but always returned unharmed and always together . We invested in extra security etc.. but unfortunately sometimes these things don't always work. At about 9am Saturday morning we received a call that our Luna was on the local Wulkuraka walking / bike trail (edge of Ipswich South East Queensland) found by a couple of walkers who called the number on her tag. Ruth and daughter Piper hurried to collect her and found her in a very bad state, panting heavily, bleeding and unable to stand on her hind legs, we assumed she had been hit by a car. A quick trip to the local vet and it was soon evident she was suffering from some very severe internal life threatening injuries and not likely to make any sort of long term recovery and the kindest thing to do was to let her slip away into sleep. Returning home and seated outside with close friends consoling the loss of Luna but still Charlie was nowhere to be seen. About noon young Charlie hobbled up the driveway and into the arms of his family home at last but very traumatized and shaky and bloodied holding one of his rear legs up - he had been recognised by a neighbor from down the street from our Facebook posts searching for him and she followed him up our driveway. Rushed to the vets and yet again decisions to be made his ankle badly broken and a few other scrapes but his age and condition presented him with a great chance of full recovery - so into surgery he went a couple days later home only for us to find out his injuries had been caused by gun shots, in particular shotgun pellets removed from his leg as well as a 'through shot' across his back. As our dogs were ALWAYS together we now thought just maybe Luna's fatal injuries may also have been caused by gunshot, so we transported her body to UQ Vets at Gatton to undergo a thorough examination to determine if it was in fact gunshot and not car hit. We are currently waiting on results but nevertheless the undisputed fact that Charlie's injuries remain as caused by gunshot. It would seem Luna may have copped the brunt of the gunfire as here condition presented as significantly worse than Charlie's. To date we have pooled together as a family $12,700 to cover costs with Luna's post mortem examintaion costs and Charlie's rehab costs still to come. We don't ask the full amount just a portion to help us along so that we can get back to what we believe is normal with our little pot of savings should we need it again one day. Both Ruth and I are average working people, we don't live extravagantly, we love our dogs so it was easy to use what savings we had to give Charlie a chance at a long happy life and justice for Luna to find the real cause of her passing. We are devastated as an extended family and our close friends draw together for strength to get through each day as we deal with this. To us if you can spare something we feel $2 is as important as $200 or if you can at least share this page far and wide to bring attention to the situation we are truly grateful of anything. Hug your fur babies tonight, things change in a heartbeat. We would never have thought that especially in suburban Australia that such a thing could happen as it has

Thanks from Scott and Ruth, Piper & Riley and big hugs to Lleyton for being here for us he makes a difference xoxo