It’s a dog’s life for canine-rescuing PC

A PC from Colchester has reunited not one but two lost dogs with their grateful owners in the past couple of months and has joked he is now “getting a reputation” for gathering strays.

PC Joe Self was among officers to reunite Monty, a cancer-detecting dog, with his owner in August. Now he has returned a spaniel called Twickenham to his relieved owner.

PC Self (pictured) was driving to an incident on Mersea Island when he was flagged down by a member of public who had found the spaniel running in a busy road.

The officer agreed to take the dog and later went to Companion Care vets in Colchester to see if he was microchipped.

“The vets were great, and luckily the dog – who we found out was a 12-year-old called Twickenham – was chipped,” said PC Self. “I then went to the owner’s address and saw she wasn’t in. I managed to get her phone number from a neighbour to let her know that Twickenham was with me and was safe.”

Twickenham’s owner, who had been out in the rain looking for her pet, rushed back home, where she found PC Self and the runaway spaniel.

“Upon seeing Twickenham, the owner cried and was clearly very relieved to have him back home,” said PC Self. “She explained that he was walking off the lead and suddenly just ran off, which is very out of character for him. It was lovely to see them reunited and I was pleased that I could help make it a happy ending.”

The officer added: “I’m getting a reputation with my colleagues for gathering dogs on shift now – Twickenham’s the eighth dog I’ve found since working for Essex Police!”