A pet dog ran off during his morning walk, before taking a 100-mile round trip to Manchester Airport, leaving his terrified owner clueless as to where he was.
Pet cavapoo Ralph had been out on a morning walk, early on Monday this week, passing through the Gresford Quarry beauty spot in Wrexham, Wales, when he bolted.
The three-year-old didn’t respond when 27-year-old owner Georgia Crewe called out to him, after she had briefly stopped to talk to another dog owner.
After the dog disappeared during their walk at 5am, his owner spent three hours searching for him as he enjoyed a cushy trip to Manchester Airport and back, in a taxi.
Ralph ran away from his owner and in the direction of his home, but the mischievous mutt jumped into an open taxi that had been heading to the airport.
Georgia said: “We always get up early in the morning and go for a walk. It was dark. He’s normally really good on his walks. But I turned around and he wasn’t there.
“At that point in the quarry, where we were walking, I could pick four different directions to go. So I picked our normal direction, but he didn’t turn up.
“We spent the next three hours walking and looking for him. We had friends and locals looking for him, but there was no head nor tail of him."
Georgia quickly created posts on Facebook with his last known location and pictures of him to alert local people that he was missing.
Remarkably, she got a phone call four hours later from a woman called Becky, who said he'd been on a 100-mile round trip to Manchester Airport in her friend’s taxi.
She said: “At 9am, we got a phone call as someone had seen my Facebook post. It was Becky. She told me what happened.
“Ralph had been walking in a direction towards home. He was obviously cold, and a cab pulled up to pick up a family going to the airport for a holiday.
“The cabby tried to keep him warm, and the people going to the airport were really nice.
“He had dropped the family at the airport, and then the cabby made his way back to his house. His friend Becky looked on Facebook and gave us a call.”
The bemused taxi driver allowed the friendly dog to stay in the car, noticing he didn't have any identification visible on his collar so not knowing who he could contact.
The passengers also had no objections to being joined by the cuddly hitchhiker.
After the airport drop-off, Ralph was taken to the driver's home in Mold, Flintshire, before the driver searched online for the owner.
Relieved Georgia was able to get little Ralph back by 10am the same day he went missing.
Georgia has now been reunited with Ralph and has bought him a new collar and a geotag as well - in case he embarks upon another 100-mile trip.
Georgia said of her beloved pet: “He's my baby. He's super intelligent and it's really uncharacteristic for him to disappear.
“He got back home, had a big breakfast and has slept most of the day.”
