THE power of social media brought a much-loved dog back to his owner this week.
Dash, a cocker spaniel owned by Jo Devlin in Kingsbridge, ran away from his dog walker at about 3pm on Friday in West Alvington Woods.
His family started looking for him all over the area, and he was spotted near Thurlestone Golf Club on Saturday.
Rachel Meadows, a friend of Jo’s, was in Plymouth all day so she couldn’t take part in the search, but she decided to set up a Facebook page when she got home in the hope that it may help.
‘When I woke up on Sunday morning, it had nearly 500 likes!’ said Rachel, ‘It was amazing. Everyone was out looking for him; people on horseback were looking as well as friends of friends of friends.’
Even Kingsbridge Police cadets were out in West Alvington woods with PCSO Paul O’Dwyer on Sunday looking for Dash.
Kaylee Hollingworth, who was calling his name while she walked along the Bantham road from the Churchstow roundabout, finally found Dash on Sunday at around midday when he popped out of a hedge.
‘He knew Kaylee, which was lucky,’ said Rachel, ‘I don’t know if he would come to someone he didn’t know, he was so scared. He’s losing his sight and it was freezing and had started raining. We were so worried about him.’
Dash’s owner Jo said on Tuesday: ‘He was very tired and very sore, but he’s so much better today. He’s been on a little walk to the park this morning because he was too scared to go outside, but we kept him on his lead!
‘I just want to thank everyone for their hard work,’ Jo continued, ‘my family and close friends who were out all day and night looking for him; the people that we didn’t even know who helped, thank you doesn’t feel like enough.’
Jo posted on the Facebook page: ‘I’m overwhelmed with the community spirit of Kingsbridge. There are tears rolling down my cheeks reading all the comments on the photo.’
The Facebook Page ‘Finding Dash’ reached over 30,000 people in less than two days, 761 people ‘liked’ the news the Dash had been found and the post was shared 156 times.