A VET had to take a softly softly approach to catch a terrified rescue dog that had been on the run in the New Forest for three weeks.

Cranborne vet Luke Gamble’s eagle-eyed two-year-old son Noah first spotted Wolfie when the family left the Roman Catholic Church in Fordingbridge on Sunday.

“We were just getting ready to go home and he came up to me, very excited, saying ‘There’s a dog in the back of the church’,” said Mr Gamble of Pilgrims veterinary service.

Only two days earlier he had received an emailed picture of Wolfie, saying he had been missing from Linford near Ringwood for more than a fortnight.

Wolfie, a rescue dog from Greece, had run off after slipping the lead when out walking with new owner Grahame Stanford who lives next door to Southern Counties German Shepherd Rescue in Toms Lane, Linwood.

Mr Gamble, who runs the Worldwide Veterinary Service charity, said it was ironic that dogs like Wolfie are the ones that the charity sets out to help.

He has had experience of working with streetdogs around the world and knew how to collar the worried runaway.

“He was just very very scared and very nervous, but very very nice,” said Mr Gamble.

“I crouched down. It’s a calm steady approach, and I chattted to him first, gave him a stroke and calmed him down and then picked him up.”

He and his family took Wolfie home, fed him and gave him a bath before taking him back to the rescue centre and owners Sue and Grahame in the afternoon.

Mrs Stanford said Wolfie is very thin and will be staying at the rescue centre for a few days to recover.

“He was gone 20 days. It would have been three weeks today, so he’s done amazingly, and we’re very very happy to have him back,” she said.