‘Tears of joy’ as wee Coco gets back home

Pup missing for three days

The family of a missing dog are celebrating getting their pup back after little Coco went three days on the run.

Hayley and Ryan Ritchie, from Cargill near Perth, were distraught when their oneyear-old terrier puppies, brother and sister Biggie and Coco, escaped from a wire run in their back garden.

Ryan and Hayley have four dogs altogether and Hayley told the PA each of the animals are “really special” to the couple.

Biggie was quickly found but Coco was frightened and ran away before Ryan could get hold of her.

There was serious worry as Coco was not experienced away from home and there was a busy main road going by the house, 12 miles from Perth.

“The puppies are not very socialised, they’ve not seen a lot of people and it would be a big scary world outside of home,” said Hayley. “Coco is quite timid, she’s also a ‘Chorkie’ - Yorkshire terrier crossed with Chihuahua, so really small, not even as big as a cat. I was in pieces to know she was lost.”

The search was going to be hard as the usual volunteers from Missing Pets Perth and Kinross Facebook page were having to stay home because of lockdown.

Luckily, regular volunteer, Ian, who works with dogs and trains them for a living, lived next door to the family.

He heard them shouting for Coco and offered to help.

Ian went out several times searching for missing Coco.

Katie McCandlessThomas of the Perth Missing Pets page alerted Dana’s Angels missing dog team in Fife, which teamed up to help in Coco’s search and nearly every hour of the day, someone was out searching for her.

A thermal scope, night vision binoculars and trail cameras were involved in the search.

Meanwhile Coco’s brother Biggie was getting stressed.

Hayley described the siblings as “like Hinge and Bracket”.

After three days without success, there had been no sightings of the tiny terrier.

Then Ian, the determined dog handler from next door, spotted a small brown dog in a field three miles away.

Coco was very scared, but he was able to sneak up behind her and cut her off so there was only one way to go so she ran right to her waiting owners.

Hayley was crying with joy as she held her pet again.

The good news was Coco was back home safe. She was hungry, covered in ticks but, apart from that, well considering her big adventure.

The Ritchies got Ian a hamper from the nearby Strawberry Shop to say thank you and having not known their neighbour, are now firm friends.