A DOG owner went online to follow the trail of his runaway hound.

Frankie, the two-year-old Labrador German Shepherd Cross, ran away from his new home in Stanford in the Vale, Oxfordshire, the day his owners adopted him.

He was spotted in Faringdon, then Berkshire, Wiltshire and Somerset before being finally tracked down nearly two months later on a farm in Dorset.

Ecologist James Brooks, wife Emma and daughter Becky, 16, adopted Frankie from a Derby dog pound on June 27.

When they tried to introduce him to their other dog, a black Labrador called Jay, in a country lane near their home, he immediately bolted.

Mr Brooks, 56, said: “He ran straight through two fields of crops to a neighbouring farm, where there was a bitch in season.”

Mr Brooks got in his car straight away to try to find Frankie but was out of luck.

Later that day he was spotted twice, once near Faringdon.

The family continued to search for the next two days, without success, then went online to doglost.co.uk They posted a description of Frankie, and over the following weeks people reported seeing him in Upper Lambourn, West Berkshire, and Wiltshire.

In a bizarre twist, Mr Brooks said they saw Frankie nearly a month after he vanished running straight past their house on July 22.

Bournemouth Echo:

Frankie with his injured leg at Kingston Veterinary Group Surgery, Sherborne

Then someone got in touch to say she had seen Frankie in Somerset. And finally, on August 19, a dairy farmer in Sherborne, Dorset, found the pooch lying exhausted in one of his barns.

It looked like he had been attacked by another animal, and his leg was infected. The farmer took him to a vet in Sherborne, who contacted Mr Brooks to let him know Frankie was safe and recovering from his epic adventure.

The family then asked the vet to do two things – give Frankie an ID chip, and neuter him, to lower the chances of him going off exploring in future.

Mr Brooks said: “He has been back a week now and it is great. Before, he would see any person and run, but he bonded with the vet and grew to trust humans again.”

Now, Mr Brooks said, Frankie and Jay even snuggle up to each other to go to sleep.

He added: “He’s actually a very affectionate chap.”

Reported sightings of Frankie on his adventures:

  • June 27 – Stanford in the Vale
  • July 4 – Wicklesham and Faringdon
  • July 5-6 – Longcot
  • July 7-8 – Woolstone
  • July 9 – Upper Lambourn, West Berkshire
  • July 10-12 – Baydon, Wiltshire
  • July 14-17 – Lambourn, West Berkshire
  • July 19 – Kingston Lisle and Baulking and Challow
  • July 22 – Stanford in the Vale
  • July 25 – Faringdon and Great Coxwell
  • August 14 – Bruton, Somerset

  • August 19 – Sherborne, Dorset