A DOG which was saved from being put down by a local charity after being found wandering on the moors has been reunited with its owners.

Black and white border collie Bess was found near Belthorn before Christmas, and despite the best efforts of Steve Wood, Hyndburn Council's dog warden, its owners could not been found for a week.

But now the elderly dog is back sleeping in the living room at the White family home in Pickup Bank, Darwen.

Owner Anne, 47, said: "It was fantastic to see her again, there were a few tears!"

Bess, 11, went missing while she was being looked after at the family smallholding over Christmas.

Anne and her husband Ian had flown to Malta for the week, leaving son George, 19, to take care of Bess.

But she wandered off and was found on the moors on Friday, December 19. She was then handed in to Steve Wood, the dog warden, who contacted the Lancashire Evening Telegraph in an effort to trace the owners.

When the White's flew home from their break, arriving back in the early hours of Christmas Eve, they discovered Bess was missing. But they didn't know the exact date she had disappeared, and it took some frantic phone calls to find her.

Anne said: "At the end of a not-too-brilliant holiday we came home to that. It was all down to circumstances.

"We have the land and she just goes out herself. She doesn't wander off and she wasn't that far from home when the man found her.

"When we heard there was a dog matching her description I was not convinced it was going to be her. But it was.

"And even the dog warden had fallen in love with her."

Dog warden Steve Wood, also the chairman of Hyndburn Stray Dogs in Need charity, said: "There was never a question of her being put to sleep. We started the charity up specifically for cases like this.

"On the eighth day after a dog has been found we take on the responsibility of helping. We either have it adopted or we foster it until we find someone."

He also heaped praise on the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's readers for their help with his boxing day appeal to find Bess' owners.

He said: "I was absolutely inundated with offers of help from people who wanted to take her on. I could have re-housed literally 50 dogs from the article in the Telegraph."