Dog who spent 17 days on the loose in Australia reunites with UK owners

22 April 2024, 12:55 | Updated: 22 April 2024, 15:35

A dog who went missing in Australia for more than a fortnight has been reunited with his owners in the UK.

Jason Whatnall and his partner Nick Rowlands recently visited Jason's home state of Victoria, Australia, with their dog Milo.

But when they were about to fly home to Swansea, the Jack Russell Terrier cross had other ideas and escaped his handler in Melbourne Airport.

The five-and-a-half-year-old pooch then went on quite the adventure - spending 17 days on the loose in the suburbs of Melbourne before he was finally found.

Mr Whatnall told Sky News he was brought to tears when he was reunited with his beloved Milo.

"It was just amazing to get Milo back. He was like squealing with delight, so excited," he said.

"And I cried, everyone cried, so it was really emotional and then we just hung out with him."

Mr Whatnall and Mr Rowlands had grown increasingly concerned for Milo's whereabouts while they were on the other side of the world in Swansea.

"For 12 days we didn't have any sightings. We didn't know where he was. So it was quite dismal, losing hope a bit," Mr Whatnall added.

Thankfully for Milo, after a social media appeal, help from volunteers came piling in.

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"We started having sightings come in left, right and centre from people in the area who kept spotting him," Mr Whatnall said.

"So we ended up pin-pointing where he was and they laid the trap and probably 48 hours later they had him.

"It was a crazy ordeal, most dogs get found within 48 hours so 17 days of being on the other side of the world, I couldn't have done it without the community and the volunteers and basically all the people that helped."

Mr Whatnall said he was pleased it was a "good news story" and that he was looking forward to "getting on with life now and settling in to Wales".

(c) Sky News 2024: Dog who spent 17 days on the loose in Australia reunites with UK owners