Dunes, drone and devoted helpers: how missing Roxie was found

Frantic owners joined by volunteers in search for pet dog

- By ANDREW FORGRAVE Countryside and Tourism Editor

AN ISLAND of dog lovers held its breath when a treasured pet went missing during a walk. Roxie, a five-year-old Jack Tzu, had scampered out of sight across dunes and hours of searching had drawn a blank.

Her frantic owners, Liz Richardson and husband John, were joined by volunteers as Anglesey’s social media community anxiously waited for news. In the early hours of the morning Roxie was spotted by “pure luck” by a drone pilot using a thermal camera.

Drone video of the rescue shows rabbits scattering in her wake as she ran across dunes at Aberffraw.

Guided by drone pilot Dafydd Edwards, from Holyhead, Roxie was picked off the common before being handed to her disbelieving owner.

Only two months earlier, she had put to sleep an older pet dog. “I couldn’t bear to lose another,” she said. “Even when I heard Roxie had been found, I didn’t dare believe it until I saw her. Then I couldn't stop hugging everyone, I was so grateful!”

The drama began on Monday lunchtime when mum-in-law Margaret took Roxie and Liz's other dog Lola, a Shih Tzu, out for their daily walk. From Rhostrehwfa, near Llangefni, she chose to drive to Aberffraw on Anglesey’s west coast: its huge dune complex, leading to the spectacular beach of Traeth Mawr, is a popular spot for dog walking.

But when Margaret encountered a couple with two large and affable dogs, Roxie took fright. “In a flash, she was gone,” said Liz, 52, a nursing assistant at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor. “Poor Margaret spent an hour looking for her in a state of panic.”