Dog survived eight days lost in the snow after getting lead tangled in gorse bush

A dog, which had been missing for a week in the snow, has been found with its lead tangled up in a gorse bush. The Cairn terrier, called Maisie, ran off when her 79-year-old owner slipped on ice on Dunwich Heath, Suffolk on 16 January. She was found eight days later by a tracker dog not far from the spot where she disappeared.



The three-year-old had lost weight but her owner, Margaret Charles, said she was "delighted" to have her back. "She ran off because she was free and she could - it wasn't her panicking because I'd fallen over," Mrs Charles said. "The next few days were hell. I got the National Trust wardens out on the day I lost her, and there were teams of volunteers out helping me search for the next week, but the tracker dog saved the day.

"I'm astonished she survived as she couldn't have eaten any food, but eating the snow must have kept her going." Jenny Brown read about the missing dog on the Lost Dog website and drove her tracker dog - a beagle called Tiga - up from Leybourne in Kent. Tiga was given Maisie's blanket to smell and found her after a couple of hours searching on the heath.



Ms Brown said: "I do cani-cross [dog and owner cross-country running] with Tiga and I trained her to learn something useful as well. There was only about a foot of Maisie's extendable lead free from the bush when we found her - she was wagging her tail and I picked her up and cuddled her." Ms Charles was contacted and then she drove out to see where her dog had been. "It's so worthwhile to see owners reunited with their pets," said Ms Brown.