Our own Littlest Hobo – family’s missing dog turns up after two years

Liam Smith, of Borrowdale Street, Hetton-le-Hole, reunited with his pet dog ‘Bracken’ after they spotted it on a charity website,

DEVOTED owners have been reunited with their beloved dog – TWO YEARS after he disappeared from his home.

Debbie Embleton was left heartbroken when Bracken, a Lakeland/Border Terrier-cross, went missing from the family’s Wearside garden in 2012.

She and partner, Liam Smith, 26, searched high and low for the pooch, but Bracken, who wasn’t microchipped, appeared to have vanished without a trace.

But Debbie, 22, refused to give up hope and continued to check the websites of nearby rescue kennels.

She was left stunned this week when she spotted a dog that looked like Bracken, who is now four years old, on the site of the East Durham animal charity, Stray Aid.

The mum-of-two said: “I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but he looked the double of Bracken. When we got there, we knew it was him, he had the exact same markings and he was so excited to see us.

“We were devastated when he disappeared because he was like our baby, and I am overwhelmed to have him back.

“I am so thrilled and his behaviour is exactly the same, he still throws his food up in the air. I’m going to cook mince and dumplings for him, because he always loved that.”

Debbie and Liam, who live in Borrowdale Street, Hetton, got Bracken when he was just six weeks old and he was two when he disappeared.

She said: “We thought he might have been stolen, we just didn’t know. I couldn’t stop looking for him. Liam had given up a bit of hope and said we were never going to find him after all this time. I just can’t believe he is home.

“I was so worried about what had happened to him, but it doesn’t look like he has been abused, so that is a massive relief. I wish he could talk and tell me where he has been.”

Bracken settled straight back into  life at home and Debbie and Liam’s children, Heidi, three, and two-year-old Charlie, are thrilled to have a new dog to play with.

Stray Aid, which has charity shops in Seaham and Easington and re-homes scores of dogs each year, took in Bracken at their Coxhoe kennels a couple of weeks ago when he was picked up by the dog warden in Wingate.