A family visiting Perthshire got their pet back safe after a frantic 30-hour wilderness search in dark and freezing conditions.
Online animal group Missing Pets, Perth and Kinross Scotland gave the McIntosh family advice and a night scope when Mix, a black spaniel cross, disappeared near his owners’ holiday home at Loch Tummel.
Kirk McIntosh (51) and his wife Pauline (51) went for a relaxed dog walk on Monday with daughter Grace (21) and son Finlay (23) - the London-based family had come to spend Christmas week together.
But panic set in when they lost sight of their nine-year-old rescue dog.
In the 30 hours that followed, Grace’s mobile app recorded she’d taken a punishing 55,000 steps trying to locate their pet.
In all, the family of four got just four hours sleep, drove to Perth and back to get pro search equipment, and were up at dawn again in freezing conditions in the quest to be reunited with Mix.
People who saw a SOS post for Mix on Katie McCandless-Thomas’ Missing Pets Perth and Kinross Facebook page offered support, with local residents teaming up to search the remote location in Highland Perthshire.
On Tuesday afternoon, a jogger met Mix and the frightened pet barked at him and seemed upset.
The family were told, given a lift in a pick-up truck to the finder’s location and Pauline met up with a very exhausted, frightened pooch.
Grace posted a joyous picture up, showing her mum with a huge grin on her face, holding Mix in her arms.
Below the photo Grace added the human statistics of their lost dog ordeal: “Thirty hours. Zero degrees. 55,000 steps. Four hours sleep and many tears later, we have our boy back.”
Katie McCandless told the PA: “We are extremely happy to see this beautiful boy reunited with his family and home safe.”
