A FLINTSHIRE mum spoke of her gratitude after a volunteer team helped reunite her family with their lost dog after more than two weeks.
Michelle Jones and her partner Stephen Aldridge, from Mold, were delighted when their precious pet Luna was returned to them and their children over the weekend.
Miss Jones said she had been for a walk with her daughters 14-year-old Olivia and eight-year-old Bethany, as well as her sister and niece, in Talacre on May 25.
She told the Leader: "I'd stopped to tip sand out of my shoe and was about to clip Luna onto her lead to go back to the car.
"When I looked down, she'd gone - she's always sniffing about but she never goes too far away.
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"We think what happened was she probably got the scent of a rabbit or something and followed it, then panicked and ran when she realised we'd become separated."
Miss Jones and her family continued searching until after midnight for six-and-a-half year old black and tan mini dachshund Luna, and returned again at 4.30am the next day.
But despite some sightings of her running on the initial day, she was nowhere to be found after that.
The family returned to Talacre every day to continue looking for her and launched an appeal on social media, which she said went viral.
After a sighting of her in recent days at the fence of a property in Talacre, Miss Jones contacted Cheshire-based Bindi's Lost and Found Pets CIC - which aims to reunite lost, stolen and missing pets with their owners.
The team came to Talacre on Friday (June 9) with a host of equipment to locate and capture Luna, and to the family's delight she was indeed captured the following day.
Donna Ryan, founder of Bindi's Lost and Found Pets CIC, said: "This dog had been missing for 15 days and people kept tagging me as there hadn't been a single sighting.
"It was heartbreaking to see, and we got a call asking for help on Friday morning.
"We went out that day and as there's been a sighting that day we deployed remote cameras and put up a trap."
The team uses Ring doorbell-type cameras to monitor the area without scaring away the pets they are trying to catch, and Mrs Ryan explained the 'trap' uses a foot pedal to close a door behind the animal and close it in a crate.
She continued: "We had roast chicken in the trap; Luna had a beautiful buffet.
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"It was exhilarating to be able to catch her and reunite her with her family.
"That poor family were there every day looking for her and they have children - Luna is a member of their family.
"It was just amazing to be able to bring her home, she'd been missing so long.
"The community was brilliant as well - everywhere you went, people were talking about this dog."
Mrs Ryan said she was glad to have found Luna just hours before the thunderstorms began, which could have been a very frightening experience for her away from home.
She also thanked the kind resident in Talacre who allowed the team to take over her garden in order to set up the trap and cameras, as well as their neighbour.
Miss Jones described the moment she first saw Luna again in the trap.
She explained: "It was overwhelming - I expected her to be frantic, but she was defeated.
"She was unsure at first, but then her tail started wagging when she realised it was me.
"She's lost a lot of weight and she's been traumatised - I think she'd been fighting for her life.
"I just broke down when I picked her up, it was such a relief because after such a long time I started to think; am I going to get her back?
"After 16 nights in boiling hot weather, it's a miracle she survived.
"Our children are absolutely chuffed to bits; they were so so upset when she went missing. We're all over the moon."
Luna has a vet check-up booked for Monday to make sure everything is ok.
Miss Jones added: "I'd like to say a massive thank you to Pam and Rachel, the people who alerted me to the fact Luna had been there; without them, we would never have found her.
"Obviously we'd like to say a massive thank you to Bindis for coming to catch her for us, and to everyone who shared our appeal - it went viral and we really didn't expect it.
"Also, Allan Cole and Amanda Burrow, who got in touch with me and went out door knocking, searching and putting posters up.
"Everyone was fantastic and I can't thank them enough.
"They have all completed our family again."
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