The letter went online yesterday on the Mudgee Guardian website, and in the early afternoon we shared it on the newspaper’s Facebook page.

By press time yesterday the Facebook post had been shared 34 times and reached 3668 people.

Update: As of 9am, July 28, the post has been shared more than 80 times and has been seen by over 7000 people.

The result jumped out at the Guardian’s social media manager, who said it exceeded the success of most of his posts, even the popular excerpts from archived papers known as ‘Throwback Thursday’.

“Anything to do with dogs,” he said, would always attract the attention of the newspaper’s online readership.

What does this say about Guardian readers? Only good things, I suspect.

When our animals are in trouble, or even our animal owners, we rally to help them, and when a dog has excelled itself, like recent front-page award-winner Buster, we’re excited to celebrate an animal that reflects the best of what we’d like to be.

As Mudgee grows beyond the small town that it has been for decades, neighbours don’t necessarily know each other well and people think twice before leaving their front doors and cars unlocked.

But it’s good to see that we still want to help when someone in the community experiences a loss, and when our vulnerable animals are endangered.

After all, if Buster’s heroics are anything to go by - his barking alerted his owners to a lost man who was then found on their property - they would be there for us too.

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