Tearful reunion after driver stops train to rescue lost and frightened pug
A lost and frightened pug was reunited with its owner after a driver stopped his train to rescue it.
Poppy the pug had run away after a speeding car in Oakham, Rutland, in the East Midlands spooked her on Tuesday night.
Her owners, Dawn and Ian Bain had spent all night looking for her in vain.
The next day at around 8.20am freight train driver Michael Jones spotted Poppy hiding in a hedge beside the track, around a mile from where she went missing.
He stopped his train and managed to collect her.
Dawn, 60, later said she and Michael both shed tears of joy when he handed her over.
The driver had been moving slowly when a flash of red from Poppy’s harness caught his eye.
‘All of a sudden there was just this tiny little face just looking back at me,’ he told the BBC.
He said he stopped and added: ‘Without thinking I jumped out the cab and rushed back as quick as I could to see if I could find this little dog and there she was just looking so very sad and lonely.
‘She was trembling and looking down at the ground. I just couldn’t believe my eyes.’
Michael carried Poppy back to his train and she rode on his knees in the cab for about 20 minutes.
He then took her home and his wife Julia phoned the local vets to find out if any dogs had been reported missing.
Thankfully Dawn had told the vets about Poppy, so the next day he took her on the train again, this time to Oakham station to meet Dawn.
‘In comes this train with this beautiful man on, with Poppy sat on his knee. I cried, massively, and he cried.
‘What amazing people, what amazing human kindness.
‘There are no words to begin to express our gratitude.’
Dawn said they took Poppy straight to the vets and were told she did not have any injuries apart from a bloodshot eye.
She was very quiet and subdued for a while however, Dawn added.
Michael thinks Poppy may never found if he hadn’t spotted her because of the location, and feels lucky he did.
Alice Harris, 30, and husband Alex, 34, got married at Longton Wood near Maidstone, Kent, on June 3 and were separated from Honey the cat for four weeks.
On the eve of their wedding day, the couple drove 30 miles from their home in Biggin Hill to the venue, having no idea their long-haired tabby pet had hitched a ride in the back.
When Alice’s sister, Victoria, unloaded the van at the wedding venue, Honey made a dash for it and disappeared into nearby woodland.
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