Any animal owner will tell you that their beloved pet going missing is one of their greatest fears. However that nightmare turned into a month-long reality for Laura Nekooie when her rescue dog Lola broke loose from her lead on October 11.
The one-year-old pup had only been living with her new family at their home in Stockport for three weeks when she became startled by a loud bang while on a walk and ran away, the Manchester Evening News reports. Laura was left distraught by her pup's disappearance and contacted Greater Manchester Lost Dog (GMLD) Search & Rescue Capture Team who immediately stepped in to assist the situation.
The team set up cameras and a series of food stations across the local area and Lola was spotted several times over the following weeks at a variety of locations - but volunteers were unsuccessful in catching her each time. However, CCTV footage later revealed that Lola wasn't travelling alone on her journeys, as she had struck up an unlikely, yet adorable, friendship with a wild fox.
Videos taken from a residential garden camera show the pup playing 'tag' with the fox and at one point the wild animal even seemed to be protecting Lola as she slept on some garden furniture. Property manager Laura, 39, couldn’t believe it when she was first told.
She said: “I thought it was a joke to start with. Every time someone reported seeing her, they said they saw her with a fox. When she made her way to Withington, we saw them running around after each other.
"She went and sat on the sofa and the fox sat next to her. The volunteers said this was something they had never come across before.”
After a stressful month-long search, Lola was finally caught in a trap and brought home to safety much to Laura and her six year old daughter's delight. Thankfully the little beagle pup was also in perfect health after its month-long adventure, apart from having lost a little weight.
Laura said: "She’s absolutely fine. Before, because she was a rescue dog, she had come to me quite scared.
"She would shy away from everything. It’s given her a bit of confidence – she isn’t scared anymore. She just appreciates the comforts of home now.
“She was curling up on the sofa. She’s settled in really well again, almost like she was never away.”
Lola, who had never lived in a house with a family before she was adopted by Laura, used to camp out in a shed and she had also never been out for a walk before. Following her disappearance, Lola was spotted in many dangerous areas including the River Mersey, near a motorway and even at a train line.
Volunteer Michelle Newns-Peers, who had been out searching for the pup, said: "Lola has been on an incredible journey, and has travelled many, many miles. Lola has been a very difficult dog to track and to get safe; our emotions and mental/physical strength have been tested to say the least.
“Many times we thought we were going to lose Lola. She was in very busy areas a lot of the time and had motorways, roads, dual carriageways, railways and the river to try to stay safe from. The worse was fireworks though.
"We were terrified for her, especially Bonfire Night. We knew she was out there and we knew she would have been absolutely terrified.
“Lola needs to renamed ‘Lucky Lola’ because she certainly was lucky staying safe. However, the main reason she stayed safe was because her survival instinct kicked in - but also because she is one clever, determined, brave little dog.”
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