Luna, a Romanian rescue dog, went missing on Monday 26.9.22 running out of the house in Harwood, Bolton. We were contacted by her owner asking for help yesterday 30.9.22. (We had been trying to help when she first went missing but somebody was already helping. This person was only staying in the area for a few days though and left to go home. )
We did posters and posted, madly trying to get people to stop chasing Luna and trying to catch her (this had already driven her several miles away from home). I put a remote camera up at owners home hoping Luna would still try to come back (something she was trying to do from the beginning but with people trying to catch her she couldn’t get near home).
We had a sighting yesterday, while I was there, reported to the dog warden, who straight away phoned me with the details. Luna had been seen lying down in the middle of a field in the pouring rain (this was the only way she could rest and see 360 degrees around her to make sure nobody went near her. Thank you to Tony who then allowed us access into his garden so we could see the field. I thermal scoped the field from a distance but didn’t pick up anything. There were other fields surrounding this field but I didn’t want to disturb Luna and make her flee. I put 2 feed stations with remote cameras in the field and then we waited.
At 5.22pm, Luna showed herself on camera and had a good feed. Plans were put in place to set up the trap this morning.
This morning, Luna was seen running about not far from her home. Pat went, while I was loading the car with the trap, and stopped people from chasing her. I asked the owners to do the same.
As I arrived with the trap, Pat saw Luna go into a green wooded area. This wasn’t far from the feed stations so it looked like she was resting before making her way back to her safe place.
After a short while, I had a call from the owner saying they could see Luna lying down. I repeated instructions that Annika should sit down and wait for Luna to recognise her. Annika sat down and slowly Luna started to approach her. Then I could hear lots of crying and happy whimpering, Luna had what we call a ‘light bulb moment’ (where she switched from survival mode back to herself as she smelled her owner) and was in Annika”s arms. Annika’s partner FaceTimed me so I could watch. Luna was ecstatic to see Annika and vice versa. It was beautiful to watch. 
Thank you so much to Tony for phoning the sighting in, not going into the field near Luna, keeping quiet about the sighting so Luna remained safe, and allowing us to use your garden for access. Also thank you so much to Sue and Mandy for printing lots of posters. We didn’t need them in the end and so sorry you spent time and resources doing this but I know you will both be so happy Luna is home and the posters aren’t needed. Thank you so much to Bolton Dog Warden for letting us know of the sighting, coming down yesterday to help and again, coming today to help carry the trap. Thankfully we didn’t need it 
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