A rescue dog escaped its new owners and walked 40 miles back to the family who abandoned him, it has been claimed.
Cooper, a retriever, was missing for 27 days as he walked 40 miles north from Dungannon, County Tyrone, to Tobermore, County Londonderry, back to his original owners.
Charity Lost Paws Northern Ireland claimed the dog’s ‘instinct’ guided him home and it made the 40-mile journey through woods and main roads at night without the help of humans.
But the dog’s new owner Nigel Fleming, a photographer from Dungannon, said he ‘couldn’t believe’ Cooper was now home after he ‘vanished in an instant’ at the start of April.
Mr Fleming had adopted the dog from kennels as he thought Cooper would be ‘good company’ for his Golden Retriever Molly.
Cooper (pictured), a golden retriever, was missing for 27 days as he walked 40 miles north from Dungannon, County Tyrone, to Tobermore, County Londonderry, back to his original owners
Charity Lost Paws Northern Ireland claimed the dog’s ‘instinct’ guided him home and it made the 40-mile journey through woods and main roads at night without the help of humans
Mr Fleming told BelfastLive: ‘I’m sitting here looking at him and I cannot believe he’s home.
‘It was a disaster. The poor boy had no idea where he was and he was in the wind. I tried to chase after him but he was gone in an instant – so then the search was on.’
He said Cooper was now ‘safe’ and he is eating small meals to ‘build up strength’ and put weight on which he lost over the 27 days.
Mr Fleming added: ‘Even when he was missing, my faith in humanity was restored thanks to the incredible help I was offered, and today with him here by my side and with Molly, I don’t really have the words to explain the gratitude I feel.’
The dog’s new owner Nigel Fleming, a photographer from Dungannon, said he ‘couldn’t believe’ Cooper was now home after he ‘vanished in an instant’ at the start of April
Mr Fleming had adopted the dog from kennels as he thought Cooper (pictured) would be ‘good company’ for his Golden Retriever Molly
A Lost Paws NI spokesman said: ‘Cooper is a clever boy. Instinct took him back to a place he was familiar with. How he did it, I’ll never know but he managed it.
‘We had searches in place, day and night and we had tracked him back to a spot where we lost him again but now we know he was almost back in the area where he’d started before he was given to the dog pound.
‘It seems incredible that he was able to do this – but dogs are incredible and that’s why we work so hard to help them every day.
‘Cooper crossed main ‘A’ roads, forests, fields, country roads all over 27 days to make his way back to his old home from an area he’d never been in before.
‘We are absolutely delighted to have been part of his rescue and a story that will live on in his family for generations to come.