A long-lost dog has been reunited with her owners – more than SIX YEARS after going walkies.
Ruby the Jack Russell was last seen in 2009 and despite a £1,000 reward being offered for her return, she was never found.
But she suddenly turned up out of the blue on Saturday, much to the surprise of owners Nigel, 44, and Vicky Round, 33.
Nigel, who was watching Match of the Day when the phone rang, said: “I had just been looking at a photograph of her and wondered, ‘what are you doing right now?’
“The phone rang and a woman said, ‘have you lost your dog?
“I said, ‘Are you having a laugh, are you joking’?
“I thought, I’m only going to believe this when I see it. My wife went bonkers, she was hysterical.”
The couple immediately went to fetch Ruby, who remembered them instantly.
“We couldn’t wait,” said Nigel. “I knew straight away, she was my dog.”
Nigel, who runs an entertainment agency, admits the family thought Ruby was gone forever when she disappeared from outside their home in Duxbury, Lancs., more than six years ago.
They put up posters and launched a Facebook campaign to try and get her back safely, but it seemed she was gone forever.
Nigel said: “We just realised she wasn’t going to come back – either she’d gone down a hole and got trapped or somebody had took her and kept her.
“You move on with life and just carry on. You don’t forget but carry on living.
“We had no sightings, nothing at all.”
Nigel and Vicky, who have four children, Hayley, 23, Jamie, 19, Heidi, six and Teddy, 18 months, then decided to get Labrador Retriever Lottie around six months later.
But they were amazed to hear Ruby had been found by a couple out walking.
She was taken to Harvey’s Army volunteer dog centre in Wigan, Gtr Mancs., where she was scanned for a microchip.
Once back with Nigel and Vicky, Ruby was taken for a check-up at the vets, who said they thought she had had puppies while away from home.
She’s now back at home and has settled back into her old routine.
Nigel said: “She’s back home now and does the things she did before. She had a position on the back of the chair where she used to sit and look through the window.
“She’s reverted back to that. She remembers.
“It’s all just a bit unbelievable, really.”
