A family pet who made headlines earlier this week after she went missing from her Mount Maunganui home is having a $3000 surgery to repair a prolapsed disc in her spine.

Lulu, a microchipped poodle, went missing from her home on Valley Road on Sunday after having a bath.

Leona Smith is happy Lulu is back from her "tour".

Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner made a public appeal for information about Lulu's whereabouts on behalf of Lulu's mum Leona Smith.

After reading a story on SunLive, Barkes Corner Vets contact Greg saying two girls had dropped Lulu off concerned about her welfare.

Greg says it was good of the girls to drop Lulu off but details about what she had been up to are still a mystery.

Talking to SunLive yesterday, Leona Smith says Lulu is undergoing surgery today at a vet in Matamata.

'She suffered some sort of trauma while she was away on tour. She has either been kicked or hit by a car. The vets are waiting until she is well enough to operate on.”

Leona says the poor little darling is back home but she is not doing very well.

Lulu went missing on the Sunday and she was returned to Leona and her daughters on Thursday.

'We were alerted to the fact she was found by Greg Turner when he had a call from the vets saying she had been brought in.

'The vet had read the story on SunLive about her missing. Greg went out there and said 'I think we may have found Lulu'.”

Leona says she and her daughters dropped everything once they heard news Lulu had been found.

'She is the kind of dog that is very much part of the family and goes everywhere with us. She is very well known around the place and such a wonderful part of our family.

'When we heard she had been found we just dropped everything and ran.”

Leona says it has been quite a saga but she will glad to have Lulu home, which she hopes will be today.