Narrandera farmer Henry Hornbuckle, 88, has been reunited with his missing two best mates, red kelpies “Buster” and “Woody”.

Mr Hornbuckle was distraught when he returned to his paddock on Saturday afternoon to find his two hand-reared and prized sheep dogs had been taken. 

“They even took the chains,” he said.

I broke them in from pups, it takes a lot of time to do this.

“They are worth a lot of money.”

Being in his late eighties and running his sheep farm alone Mr Hornbuckle did not have time to train another puppy to replace “Buster” and “Woody”.

The cost of replacing just one of the special dogs could have gone as high as $4000. 

There was not much Mr Hornbuckle could do to fix his situation. 

However, Narrandera Shire Council soon realised they had the dogs. 

On Tuesday morning Mr Hornbuckle received a call from a council officer letting him know that his dogs were in the Narrandera pound.

After four days away, Mr Hornbuckle was reunited with his best friends and none have left each other’s side since. 

“I’ll never know what happened,” he said.

“At least they are back.

“Nobody knows how they ended up in the pound. No-one was there at the time, no cameras, no one phoned, they were just chained to the fence.”

Buster and Woody were not microchipped or registered as working dogs are not required to be.

A statement issued by the Narrandera shire quoted the Companion Animals Regulation 23 Requirement for registration of lost and impounded animals.

“A companion animal not otherwise required to be registered under the Act that is taken into the custody of a council (including in the council pound) or an approved animal welfare organisation must be registered under the Act before it is returned to its owner from that custody,” the statement read.

Consequently Mr Hornbuckle was charged $299 to have his stolen dogs returned to him, a fee that added pressure to the already distressed farmer. 

“In investigating the situation it has become apparent that the registration fee charged was for a companion animal rather than a farmland working dog,” the council statement continued.

“Council will now rectify this oversight with the charge now being $60 for the two microchip procedures rather than $299 for two microchip procedures and companion animal registration.” 

Mr Hornbuckle thanked Narrandera shire and the community for its support in helping to find his two mates.