RUNAWAY pet Milly has been reunited with its owner after nearly six weeks living in the wild – and the dog was pregnant!
The two year-old shih tzu bitch disappeared from Hagloe House Farm, Blakeney where it had been brought to stud on January 6.
Owner Debbie Heston lives in Devon and has been travelling up and down the country in search of her beloved pet.
Debbie said: "My dad is poorly in hospital at the moment. I was in Kent visiting him when a man rang me saying he thought he had Milly. I didn't believe it at first and asked him to send a picture on my mobile. Even then I still wasn't sure."
But on Monday morning Debbie drove back to Gloucestershire on the chance that she could be reunited with Milly.
"As soon as I saw her, I knew it was her!" Debbie said. "She was sitting on a wooden chair with a little girl and I said her name.
"She looked up, sniffed a couple of times and suddenly just ran to me, licking me, crying and cuddling into my jumper. She was so tiny – not much more than a little bag of bones."
Milly's rescuers took Debbie to the place where they found the runaway. Milly had been living in a hole under a tree and a few metres away was a dead sheep which she appears to have been eating.
Debbie has now taken Milly home and she has been checked over by the vet.
Incredibly, the little dog was pregnant, but sadly lost her puppies shortly after returning home.
"I can't believe she managed to survive on her own because she is so tiny and she has always been very spoilt. The vet says it's a miracle – if the weather hadn't killed her, a fox should have done.
"The first few days she was home, she was wary and on her guard when she was eating. I can't describe how wonderful it is to have her home again. I keep looking at her just to make sure it is really her, but all her habits are still the same.
"Every evening when I get home from work, I don't even take my coat off, I just sit on the kitchen floor and stroke her and pamper her."
Debbie said she would like to thank the children who found Milly, all the Review readers who looked for Milly and everyone who telephoned to offer their support and share stories of re-discovered pets.