To Shira Meged, her three-year-old pup, Rosie, is as good as gold.
So when the doting dog owner from Manhattan received the earth-shattering call on Nov. 25, that a petsitter had lost her mini Golden-doodle in Central Park, she fast-fetched a small fortune towards finding the missing fur ball.
“We’ve raised over $18,000 on GoFundMe, and a ton of community support towards bringing Rosie home,” a despondent Meged, 34, told The Post.
The millennial’s crowdsourcing profile, launched by a friend on Dec. 5, has amassed a staggering $18,693 of its $20,000 goal to fund pet investigative services.
Altruistic animal enthusiasts with excess cash to spare — including a fellow “UES dog mom” who gave $20, and a “praying” pup lover from Cincinnati, Ohio who coughed up $40 — are eagerly funding the hunt.
“Of the donations, $6,000 is going towards a reward for anyone who returns Rosie,” Meged, a licensed child exploitation therapist, explained. “But the majority of the funds raised will help pay for the $300-per-day dog investigator I immediately hired to find her.”
To retain the puppy P.I.’s specialized services, Meged has racked up a bill totaling approximately $13,000 over the past six weeks.
And while the title “dog investigator” might drum up visions of pro jokester Jim Carey as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” patrolling the streets of NYC for hounds gone astray, the Jim that Meged tapped to locate little Rosie is no joke.
“I set up hunting cameras, feeding stations and ethical traps to recover lost dogs all around the city,” intuitive pet tracker Jim Tierney, from Brooklyn, told The Post.
He, like other doggy sleuths, often uses pooch-friendly treats like rotisserie chickens or liquid smoke-scented bites to lure wayward tail-waggers towards the recording devices he installs near their last known locations.
Once the pup is caught on camera, Tierney — who’s found dozens of four-legged friends since becoming a certified Missing Animal Response Technician in 2020 — will either immediately instruct its owner to make the retrieval or collect the dog himself.
And although time is of the essence during pet pursuits — even though domesticated mutts have survived alone in the woods for up to six years — Tierney says there no limit to his commitment.
“I never give up,” the guru insisted. “If they’re out there, I get them.”
His dogged search for Rosie began 24 hours after Meged was notified that she’d gone missing.
The Manhattener was water-locked on a Caribbean cruise when her dog sitter confessed to allowing the pup to explore the park off-leash.
“I immediately went numb,” remembered Meged, who took ownership of Rosie at 8 weeks old for companionship at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown. It was love at first sight for the once inseparable pair.
“My stomach sank,” said Meged. “I was in the middle of the ocean, completely helpless and out of control.”
After docking in the Dominican Republic, the brunette hopped the first flight back to the Big Apple. Once in the city, she raced to the 76th Street and Fifth Avenue entrance of Central Park, where the sitter last saw Rosie, in search of her pink-nosed darling.
“It was late at night and raining, but I didn’t care,” said Meged. “That’s not my dog, that’s my daughter — I will not be complete until she’s home.”
In the week since Rosie’s disappearance, the Upper East Sider’s neighbors have banded together, both online and in-person, to reunite the desperate dog mama and her baby.
“It’s been amazing to see people from my community and all over New York dedicate their time, money and efforts towards funding Rosie,” she said. “We’ve had more than 50 strangers show up and join our search parties, we do weekly flyer-hanging events around the park.”
Facebook groups such as the “Dogs of Upper East Side” and “Upper East Side Connections,” as well as social media influencers are, too, spreading the word.
In fact, NYC content creator Chanelle Futrell virally encouraged her more than 349,000 TikTok followers to keep a watchful eye out for Rosie in a trending post.
Meged is grateful for the emotional and financial support of her fellow Gothamites.
“If I could say one thing to Rosie right now,” she told The Post, “I’d say: ‘Come home, the lights are on for you.’”