The heart-warming moment a dog bolts into its owner’s arms after it was missing for a week has been captured by a drone.
John Stringer, 50, rushed home from a family holiday in Turkey after he found out his dog – a two-year-old cockapoo called Molly – ran away from his elderly mom’s cottage in Pateley Bridge, North Yorks.
John’s sister, Carolyn Oakley, 46, quickly posted a call out on Facebook, and before long, a search operation was launched by Vivienne Hanson, 60, through the volunteer dog rescue charity, Busters Animal SOS Team.
After a week of chasing leads, setting bait traps with sausage, chicken, and gravy, and using cameras to track Molly’s location, drone footage captured the moment John was finally reunited with his lost pup.
John, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, said: “It was such a relief when she ran over and was all cuddles.
“That week was a rollercoaster, everything was on a knife-edge, I was expecting bad news at any moment, but for it to end that way was just immense.
“It was one heck of a week with many sleepless nights.
“I can’t thank Vivienne and Andy enough, as well as the locals who were so kind and helpful with bringing Molly home.”
John – who works for the NHS – was just days into his eight-day family trip to Marmaris, Turkey, when he received a phone call at 2am local time from his mom that Molly had gone missing on Monday, August 25.
He said: “She said she had let her out for an evening wee until Molly had decided she wanted to go home and jumped over her garden wall, which is about 4 and a half feet tall.
“Molly is only small, about 12 inches tall, leg to shoulder, and about a foot long, so I was surprised and shocked to hear she had managed to do so.
“She had then run down the road looking for my car, and when my scent disappeared, she had gotten herself lost running in the wrong direction trying to find it again.”
John then told how his sister Carolyn quickly put up a missing dog post on Facebook and subsequently received messages from a number of people who were willing to help find her.
The dad of two then rushed home – booking the next available flight back to Leeds on the Wednesday – so he could help with the search effort.
John said, “I was extremely worried.
“The Yorkshire Dales are a vast place – she could have been anywhere.
“All night I was lay in bed waiting for follow-up messages from my sister about what was happening.”
Carolyn received a message from missing dog charity The Lost Dog Trapping Team, run by Mandy Butler, who put her in contact with Vivienne, who is based in Bradford, Yorks., who took on the challenge of finding missing Molly.
The same night, volunteer Andrew Gilpin, 67, travelled over an hour from Bradford to Pateley Bridge to set up two cameras outside John’s mom’s house to check if Molly was still in the area.
Vivienne revealed the trail went cold until Thursday when a gamesman reported seeing Molly run in front of his car, then up a hill and under a gate – near Gouthwaite Reservoir, around six miles from home.
John said, “The cars must have scared her further and further away.
“Vivienne told me that Molly had entered into flight mode, so she was just focused on surviving, finding food, water, and shelter, rather than being found.”
“She was then spotted about six miles away from where she should have been.”
Vivienne then told how she contacted the farmer and asked for the location of the gate.
Then on the Saturday, she visited the spot where she found paw prints in and around a nearby small stream, which were a match to Molly as well as her excrement.
A camera was then set up in a number of more locations, as well as some food, which included sausages, bacon, chicken, liver, and gravy, in an attempt to feed her and try to work out her rough location.
She also set up a gate trap to try to capture Molly as she ate, which didn’t work.
Though the cameras did catch Molly eating the food before she disappeared again until Monday, September 8 – a week since she had been missing – when she was spotted in a farmer’s field rolling on her back.
John had told Molly was working her way back and was about a mile and a half out from his mom’s cottage when she was located.
Upon receiving the news, Vivienne, Andy, John, as well as his daughter Emily, 16, rush over to the field with hopes of bringing her home.
There, they performed a rescue exercise under Vivienne’s expert guidance.
Vivienne said, “I told John to walk to a far fence and sit with his back to her.
“I told them to say her name and talk about her in the voice they use whilst at home.
“Molly knew that someone was in the field, but they weren’t causing harm.
“Andy had already got his drone in the air, just in case she decided to do a runner, so we would be able to follow her.
“He had put also on his old clothes so that his smell would be picked up by her in the wind.
“Luckily, the wind was blowing in her direction – they also had bacon butties, which helped.”
John has told how it took 20 minutes before she slowly but surely made her way towards him, before picking up a strong scent and bolting straight into his daughter’s arms.
John said: “In that moment it was just a huge relief.
“I was very pleased to have her back.
“The whole week felt like a big game of cat and mouse I was so happy it was over.
“I can’t thank Busters and Vivienne enough for all of their help.
“I took her to the vet where she had a check up and tapeworm injection.
“Then it was the shower – she had a good clean before the hairdryer was brought out and turned into a pom pom.
“Molly was a bit shaken for the first couple of days but now back where she belongs on the sofa lay on her back watching TV.”
Viviene said it “never gets old” helping save a lost dog.
She said: “It is always heartwarming and such a relief when they find them – it really just never gets old.”
Vivienne has told how if you ever come across a lost dog, the safest thing you can do is take down its location and report it back to the owner.
She said: “The worst thing you can do is try and get its attention and grab it.
“We have lost dogs that way, as they can run away and into the road and in front of a car because they are scared of you.
“The best thing you can do is take down its location and report it to the owner, then steps can be taken to capture it.”
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