Family pet back home six months after going missing, Teesdale Mercury

A PET dog has been reunited with his owners after being found more than 100 miles away from home nearly six months after he went missing. 

Beau the Bedlington terrier was taken from his home in Boldron in February but thanks to a microchip in his neck, dog wardens who picked him up in Hull were able to return the much-loved family pet back home. 

Owner Jane Adams, and her foster daughter Milly, 11, said they were devastated after Beau went missing. 

The two-year-old had only been with the family since November when Ms Adams adopted him from the Bedlington Terrier Rescue Centre in Northumberland. 

She said: “I was outside chopping logs and we’d had another snowfall. He normally didn’t leave my side and when I called him at about 11am he didn’t come. 

“At first I thought he’d been kicked by one of our rescue horses but there was no sign of him.”

When she investigated further, Ms Adams said she discovered vehicle tracks in the snow. “I hadn’t been out and when my friend called she had had to park at the top because of the snow, so I knew somebody had been down but I’d heard nothing.”

After scouring the area Ms Adams then had to break the news to Milly who was distraught about Beau’s disappearance. 

“I felt horrible. We just cried and cried,” said Milly, who also wrote a poem about her missing dog.

Ms Adams said they continued to look for Beau but without success. 

She said: “We drove and drove and walked all over. We contacted the police and the dog wardens and Petlog, who hold the mircrochip database, but nothing. 

“We did one final slog and went to Appleby Fair, to look at the horses and see if we could see any sign of Beau but of course, he wasn’t there. I just knew I couldn’t replace him.”

After starting to accept that they might not see Beau again, the family received a call from dog wardens in Hull last Monday night. Beau had been found, although he was badly hurt. Ms Adams said: “We were told that his neck and shoulders were cut and he’d have to be taken to the vets.”

Beau had been found wearing a harness and when the warden removed it, the flesh underneath was badly damaged. 

After initial treatment in Hull, Beau was collected by his owners who were thrilled to see him. Ms Adams made up a bed in the back of her car and Milly slept by his side all the way back to Barnard Castle.

“The wounds on his neck were just horrendous, and his coat was atrocious, full of all kinds of debris. Milly couldn’t stroke him properly because there was rubble and these big spikes in it.”

Beau was taken to Castle Vets where nurses spent one-and-a-half hours clipping his coat before more surgery on his neck. 

Ms Adams said: “They were wonderful at Castle Vets. They said Beau’s wounds were several weeks, if not several months, old and had been caused by him being tethered up by a very abrasive chain. 

“What I don’t understand is why steal something that belongs to someone else, that is so beautiful, and then neglect him?”