Dog travels 15 miles home across motorway and moorland

A lost dog was reunited with its owners after a marathon 31-hour trek that took the mongrel across the M1, four major A roads and miles of treacherous moorland. In a story reminiscent of 1940s film Lassie Come Home, a family who had given up their whippet-terrier cross Jack for dead looked outside to find him asleep on their doorstep. The mongrel dog – exhausted and sore-pawed, but very much alive – had walked 15 miles along an unfamiliar route, apparently untroubled by obstacles including a four-lane bypass and one of the country's busiest motorways. The dog's bravery is all the more remarkable for the fact that he suffers from a fear of traffic, and walks with a limp, after being knocked down by a lorry five years ago.

David Cooper, 46, from Penistone near Sheffield, said: "He had been missing for a day-and-a-half and we'd all but given up. We'd had dozens of friends and neighbours out looking for him but decided to call off the search. "On a whim, I had one more look outside the back of the house just in case he had returned. I glanced down through the window of the door and did a double take, because there he was." He added: "He looked up at me, and his eyes said: 'Have I been naughty?' The children smothered him in hugs for the next hour, so I think he knew he was forgiven."



Jack had become separated from Mr Cooper, an accountant, and his vet wife Liz around 2pm Sunday May 16, while the couple were walking in Dearne Valley Park to the east of Barnsley town centre in South Yorkshire. Spooked by other dogs, the dog dashed into the woods and would not come when called. From what the Coopers have managed to piece together from people who spotted Jack on his circuitous adventure, he somehow managed to cross the busy Barnsley bypass and travel north-west along the route of a canal before cutting down south-west to the M1 at Higham. Mr Cooper said: "We really have no idea how he got across. There are a couple of pedestrian subways, but he would have no idea where they were so it's possible he just made a dash across the traffic."

The Coopers subsequently learned that he was seen walking along a main road in the village of Oxspring around 24 hours later, having traversed miles of rough moorland and woods. The final leg of his journey took him a few miles north to his owners' home, where he curled up in a ball on the back doorstep around 9.30pm on Monday. Over the course of Jack's trek the Coopers have calculated he must have crossed at least four major roads - the A61, A637, A628 and A629 - in addition to the motorway. Mrs Cooper, 49, said: "I’ve asked all my colleagues at work if they can tell me how dogs can navigate when they’ve never been somewhere before, but they’re just as baffled as me. Everyone thinks it’s quite amazing.”