A dog that went missing when it fled in terror because of fireworks has been found nearly 100 miles away after nine months.

Uno, a seven-year-old Yorkie-shih tzu cross, escaped from Theresa McGailey’s town centre home in November through a hole in the garden fence caused by a car crash.

Her grandchildren Malachy, 11, and Shakiya, 9, were devastated and Theresa immediately began searching for the pet.

She put out a call for help on social media and was overwhelmed by the response. “Everyone was so helpful,” she said. “Dogs Lost were amazing, they printed me loads of posters to put up. 

“The dog warden, the council, the police, all the people in Swindon and the surrounding area were so lovely and helpful.”

“We looked for him everywhere, and obviously put posts on all the lost animal social media pages. In the first few weeks several people would phone to say they thought they had found him, but it wasn’t Uno. 

“That was horrible, because you get your hopes up every time someone calls and it’s gutting when it turned out not to be him. 

“I carried on hunting around the streets, putting posters up and asking online. 

“My granddaughter was particularly close to Uno, and she was devastated. I missed him as well.”

She came close to finding Uno in Swindon after witnesses reported him being spotted with a woman in the town centre, but when she was contacted she said she had given Uno to someone else to look after, and that’s when he completely disappeared. 

Police treated Uno’s disappearance as theft, but as time passed and no more sightings were reported, Theresa started to fear she’d never see him again. 

“Months passed and eventually posters started vanishing, interest online died down,” she said.“I took the last poster down from the window on Tuesday. It was just upsetting my grandchildren to see it everyday.” 

Then just days after she took the final poster down, she received an incredible phone call. 

“I was baking a cake when I had a phone call. It was a vet in Weymouth - more than 90 miles away from Swindon. 

“They asked: ‘Is this is Theresa? Have you been in Weymouth?’ Then they said: ‘We have a little dog here, we’ve scanned him.’ 

“I started to get emotional and they told me to have a cup of tea and phone them back.”

Theresa discovered that Uno had been found as a stray in Weymouth and handed over to Medivets. 

But the story took an even more bizarre twist when  Medivets explained that someone else had also claimed Uno as their dog.

It turned out that another person had found him in December, around two months after he had gone missing, and had decided to keep him. 

Theresa said: “It was a comfort to know he’d been looked after, but it was also heartbreaking to see my grandchildren get so upset and suffer for months, when all the finder had to do was take him to a vet to get his microchip scanned.”

Because Uno had been reported stolen and was microchipped police in Weymouth ruled Theresa was the rightful owner.

It meant she was able to make the trip to the seaside town after a friend, Roger Farmer, agreed to drive her there. 

“Uno was absolutely fine, as soon as he saw me he came running up to me and was licking me. 

“The feeling was so immense, just happiness and relief that he was back, relief that there when nothing wrong with him.” 

“My granddaughter got a bit teary and he was licking her and he sat with her the whole time. 

“They were close before they went missing. She wants to be a vet so she’s a bit animal mad to be honest. She’s got him sleeping in her bedroom so he can’t disappear anymore.”

She added: “I can’t describe how happy I am. It gives people hope that if you’ve lost your dog there’s a chance that they can still come home.”