THE owners of a much loved St Bernard who went missing for three days has spoken of her elation after he was found safe and well.

Three and a half year old Tony disappeared at around 2.30pm on Friday while he was out for a walk in Stratton woods.

His owners spent three days searching for him, not knowing what had happened to such a beloved member of their family.

On Sunday his scent was tracked as far as the Aldi supermarket off Thamesdown Drive but then the rain came and the search had to be put on hold.

By Monday afternoon there was still no sign of Tony, either from members of the public or any vet practices in the area.

But then came the fantastic news that everyone had been hoping for, Tony had been spotted.

His owner, Zoe Roberts, of Stratton St Margaret, said: “I was in the car on the way to put up more posters when I got the call.

“The staff at Gibbs Surfacing on Turnpike Road had spotted him wandering into the yard looking for shade.”

Luckily Zoe was only five minutes away and raced to be reunited with Tony who was being looked after by the alert staff who had spotted him.

As soon as he saw Zoe arrive, Tony came running over to greet her and then bounded along next to her as they headed back to the car.

“I can’t describe the feeling of being reunited with him,” said an exhausted but very relieved Zoe.

“It’s almost visceral, you just feel so much lighter.”

Considering he had been missing for three days, Tony was clean and very well hydrated when he was found.

His nails did not look like he had been pounding concrete for three days which does raise the question of where he might have been for all this time.

Of course the people who spotted Tony only knew who to call because of the way his owners' appeals for help had circulated around Swindon and beyond.

As soon as the news of his disappearance reached social media, the network of dog lovers across the country got behind the search.

Tweets and Facebook posts were shared hundreds of times and our articles were retweeted and circulated in huge numbers.

On Saturday morning a team of volunteers came out in person to scour the woods where Tony was last seen.

Zoe added: “We’re really quite overwhelmed by the scale of the response.

“The support has been phenomenal, I really can’t thank everyone enough.”