Tearful reunion after driver stops train to rescue lost pug | British News

A lost and terrified pug has been reunited with his owner after a driver stopped his train to save him.

Poppy the pug had run away after being startled by a speeding car in Oakham, Rutland, in the East Midlands on Tuesday night.

Her owners Dawn and Ian Bain had been looking for her all night to no avail.

At around 8:20 a.m. the next day, freight train driver Michael Jones spotted Poppy hiding in a hedge beside the track, about a mile from where she went missing.

He stopped his train and managed to collect them.

Dawn, 60, later said she and Michael both shed tears of joy when he handed them over.

The driver was moving slowly when a flash of red from Poppy’s harness caught his eye.

“Suddenly there was just this tiny face looking at me,” he told the BBC.

He said he stopped, adding, “Without thinking, I jumped out of the cab and rushed back as fast as I could to see if I could find this little dog and she just looked so sad and lonely.”

“She was shaking and looking at the floor. ‘I just couldn’t believe my eyes.’

Michael carried Poppy back to his train and she rode on his knees in the cab for about 20 minutes.

He then took them home and his wife Julia called local vets to find out if any dogs had been reported missing.

Luckily Dawn had told the vets about Poppy so he took her on the train again the next day, this time to Oakham station to meet Dawn.

“There comes this train with this handsome man and Poppy is on his knee.” I cried hard and he cried.

“What great people, what great human kindness.”

“There are no words to express our gratitude.”

Dawn said they took Poppy straight to the vet and was told she had no injuries other than a bloodshot eye.

For a time, however, she was very quiet and reserved, Dawn added.

Michael thinks that because of the location, Poppy might never have been found if he hadn’t spotted her, and is glad he did.

Meanwhile, the bride and groom have been reunited with their pet cat after it accidentally hitchhiked to the couple’s wedding venue.

Alice Harris, 30, and husband Alex, 34, were married on June 3 in Longton Wood, near Maidstone, Kent, and have been separated from Honey the cat for four weeks.

On the eve of their wedding anniversary, the couple drove 30 miles from their home in Biggin Hill to the venue, unaware that their long-haired tabby pet was in the back.

As Alice’s sister Victoria unloaded the van at the wedding venue, Honey ran and disappeared into the nearby woods.

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