Dog who disappeared into field discovered by drone

A missing dog as tall as a cereal box and as long as a computer keyboard has been returned to her teenage owner thanks to the help of a farmer and a drone pilot.

Two-year-old Mila, a miniature dachshund, spent nine days on the run before she was finally seen wandering in a wheat field near her home in Swavesey, Cambridgeshire.

Owner Alannah Kerr-Higgins, 15, called Mila's name and waited while thermal image pictures tracked the dog's progress through the thigh-high wheat.

More than four hours after first being spotted, the tiny pooch found her way back into Alannah's arms - with a tin of food waiting.

Alannah's mother, Karen Higgins, told how Mila went missing while staying with a relative on 27 May.

She said Mila measured 40cm (16in) from "nose to bum" and 28cm (11in) from her paws to the top of her head.

It was believed Mila had wandered out of an open door without anyone noticing.

She was eventually found on 5 June in a field behind the house where she had been staying after Ms Higgins asked residents and drone operators for help on social media.

A farmer answered her call, saying they had spotted Mila in a field.

Alannah waited in a clearing and called Mila's name while a drone pilot from Drone to Home - a lost dog search and rescue charity based in Nottingham - monitored the dachshund's movements using a thermal imaging camera.

Charity founder Phil James recalled how Mila found her way into overjoyed Alannah's arms after about four-and-a-half hours.

"We never gave up hope," said Ms Higgins.

"People have been quite simply amazing. My faith in humanity is, I don't know, a million per cent."

She said Mila was very hungry and thirsty when she was found, but was doing well.

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