Moppet’s tail has a happy ending

A dog who was so badly injured that she took 48 hours to crawl back to where she last saw her family is now on the road to a full recovery.

Moppet the labrador cross was impaled on a three-inch wooden fence post when she was let off her lead in Wyre Forest, but sheer instinct led her back to where owners Liz and Henry Ibberson were coming back each day to check for her. After dozens of stitches and plenty of tender loving care Moppet is now almost back to her old self.

The couple, of West Beech Road, Pattingham, had been walking in Button Oak, Bewdley with eight-year-old Moppet, who they took home from a rescue shelter four years ago, and their 13-year-old whippet cross Fliss.

Mrs Ibberson, aged 63, said the dogs had been allowed to run free as they always did last Sunday.

She said: “Normally they stick together like glue but Fliss came back on her own and so we knew something was wrong.

“We kept looking for her until 10pm but there was absolutely no sign.

Mrs Ibberson said she and her metals company director husband, aged 62, had decided to see if there was a missing dogs website and found DogLost.co.uk, which is based in Great Barr.

They posted their contact details with a description of Moppet and made posters before returning the next morning to the area where they had last seen her.

The couple received calls from several people, including a barber in Bewdley, who said they had seen a dog matching Moppet’s description still in the area.

Eventually another couple called, almost 48 hours after Moppet had disappeared.

Moppet had been found hiding in bushes almost exactly where the Ibbersons had let her off her lead.

Mrs Ibberson said: “All you could see was her eyes in the undergrowth. She was in a terrible state. The fence post had gone through her abdomen and had come out the other side by her tail.

“We think she had tried to jump a fence, possibly chasing something.

“But she had come back to where she had last seen us, her instinct had led her there.”

The piece of fence post was removed by Redside Vets in Bewdley and Moppet has since been treated by St George’s Veterinary Group in Albrighton.