This is the moment a sobbing mother was reunited with her missing sausage dog after trekking 60 miles in four days to find her.
Alifiya Mohamedbhai feared her dachshund Violet had been stolen after she disappeared while on a walk with her friend on Friday in Reddish Vale Country Park, Greater Manchester.
The 33-year-old and friend Madeleine Fitzgerald, 28, followed the pooch’s collar tracking device but when it lost connection they exhausted themselves frantically searching for four days.
Eventually, the Apple AirTag reconnected yesterday afternoon and directed the ‘aching’ pair to an embankment where the friends found the three-year-old pet.
Footage shows Ms Mohamedbhai, a GP surgery care co-ordinator, wading through knee-deep water towards the tiny dog as she and her friend cry with relief.
Ms Mohamedbhai shared the emotional clip on Facebook, where users said it ‘gave them goosebumps’ and made some of them cry.
The relieved mother of one says she’s been left with blisters after clocking up around 62 miles in four days hunting her beloved sausage dog.
Ms Mohamedbhai, from Burnage, said: ‘I just couldn’t stop crying. It was insane. I’d completely lost faith in finding her. I thought someone had stolen her.
‘We sound like we’re dying on the video but I put my jumper on her and she was absolutely fine. She was just crying with excitement.
‘The house has been empty and quiet and we’ve missed her annoying bark. She’s not even an exploring dog and she hates going on walks.
‘On Friday, the tag said she’d wandered to a dual carriageway but after that there were no sightings of her.
‘I lost hope yesterday because my body was so sore and I’d hardly slept. I’m exhausted. Every single bone in my body is aching. I’ve got blisters on my feet.
‘Yesterday, I tried the app again and for the first time we got a location. We took some paracetamol and went there.
‘Madeleine saw her and she was just wagging her tail like nothing had happened. I didn’t even think of the rocks or how deep the river was. I just jumped in.’
Ms Mohamedbhai said Violet goes on walks in Reddish Vale Country Park every day and knows it well so perhaps the dog knew how to make her way back there after her adventures.
She desperately contacted Greater Manchester Police and independent dog finders to help find her, however by yesterday morning she had given up looking in the park.
Devastated Ms Mohamedbhai and her friend Ms Fitzgerald began handing out posters but then in the afternoon she was urged to check the Apple AirTag’s app a final time by her sister and it reconnected to Violet.
Now Violet’s safely at home, the relieved owner said she’d love to know what the pooch got up to while she was missing and where she went because she was checking the park constantly.
She says vets have called it a ‘miracle’ that she wasn’t harmed and they’ve confirmed she still has a clean bill of health.
Greater Manchester Police have been contacted for comment.