Reunited: Missing Ollie is back home

Lisa’s beloved Beagle Ollie escaped from her parents’ garden on Highwoods Road, Mexborough, on September 11 and as time passed hope began to fade of ever seeing him again.

But the 33-year-old, of Chapeltown, was reunited with her pooch healthy but a little thinner after a volunteer search party managed to track him down at Parkgate.

A Facebook site aimed at finding Ollie had gained 600 followers and there were sightings of him at Manvers and on Golden Smithies Lane, Swinton.

But he was spotted and caught five miles away, at Parkgate, just before the heavy snow began to fall on Boxing Day.

A relieved Lisa said: “It’s absolutely fantastic. It’s like a Christmas miracle.

“Ollie is alright. We are taking him to the vets to check him out. He has a cut to his ear and he’s a little bit slimmer.

“But he has certainly survived by himself.”

Lisa said that Ollie was welcomed home with “lots of hugs and kisses” and she admitted that her hopes of seeing him again had been fading.

She said: “I had given up hope in a way.”

Lisa said that she had bought Ollie from a man in Harworth just five weeks before he did a runner.

The adventurous dog jumped over a four foot high fence to escape and was not wearing a collar at the time.

People who spotted Ollie said that he had always run away from them, said Lisa, who believes he survived by scavenging for food.

Now Lisa will be getting him a new harness to keep him in check and the delighted dog owner hopes that his near-eleven week adventure will cure him of any wanderlust in future.