Delighted Woodbridge resident Angie Hill has been reunited with her missing dog found 100 miles away roaming along a Hertfordshire road.

Witnesses saw the rare teacup chihuahua, Stanley, being taken by a boy on a BMX from a small Woodbridge park on Beresford Drive just minutes after he’d escaped from Angie’s nearby garden in Nelson Way in April.

At the time Angie, who was looking after Stanley long term for her daughter Christie (both pictured with Stanley), said she was heartbroken. But following a huge appeal in Living In … Woodbridge magazine and on Facebook, Angie believes that Stanley became “too hot to handle” locally and was possibly taken out of the county by travellers.

“We will never really know, it was a theory put forward by the vet who he was handed into by the lovely lady who found him in St Albans,” says Angie. “But we are just delighted that he’s safe and well and back at home with us and we’d like to thank Living In … Woodbridge magazine and absolutely everyone who has helped us including the lady who found her and took her to the vet in Hertfordshire. It restores your faith in people.”

Terrible time

Angie says it has been an emotional time for her and her family.

“When Stanley was missing for those 12 weeks I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t leave the house as everyone kept asking about him and I’d end up in tears,” she says. “My cat was run over and died just a few weeks before we found Stanley, and all in all it was a terrible time. But I never really gave up hope that we’d find him. I didn’t wash his bedding and toys. My other daughter kept up her campaign on Facebook and we would not give up. All I can say to other people locally is to really keep an eye on your pets as there are people out there who might take them and sell them.

“We’ll never know what happened to Stanley when he was taken, he could have been used for breeding. But the vet checked him over and luckily he was fine. He wasn’t eating at the vets but as soon as he came home he started eating. He was very nervous at first and didn’t know what was happening, poor little thing. But he’s getting back to his old self now. We’re back to playing our favourite game of Kiss And Torture, where I chase him around demanding kisses and finally he lets me catch him and pretends to bite me as I torture him with kisses!”
It’s a lovely ending to a sad story though Angie doubts she’ll ever let him out of her sight again.

“He’s got a new harness for when we go outside in the garden and we are keeping an extra close eye on him,” she says. “You don’t think anything like this could happen in Woodbridge, but it can.”