Stolen Rothwell dog found 130 miles away in Bristol
- Published
Bella was reunited with her owners exactly four months after going missing
A dog stolen outside a Northamptonshire supermarket has been found roaming the streets more than 130 miles (210km) away in Bristol.
Bella, an English springer spaniel, was taken just 40 seconds after being left outside Tesco in Rothwell in October.
Her owners have searched for her ever since, but were contacted out of nowhere four months later after she was picked up by the RSPCA.
Owner Sarah Osborne called the emotional reunion "amazing".
"Not that we had given up hope but we hadn't heard anything," she said.
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"He [husband Phil Osborne] had taken her down the shop and tied her up to go and grab me a bar of chocolate of all things, and literally in 40 seconds someone had untied her.
A dog that went missing in Rothwell has been found over 130 miles away in Bristol.
The springer spaniel appeared happy to be reunited with her family
"Since then it's been traumatic. But we'd had no sightings of her, so when we got the phone call it was pretty amazing."
Mrs Osborne said the family rehomed Bella as a young dog after she was found "in a state", and it took her a year to get to full health.
Since then she had been everywhere with the family, including on numerous holidays and up and down Mount Snowdon in Wales.
Bella was captured by CCTV being taken outside Tesco in Rothwell
They were left traumatised when Bella was unhinged from a tree outside Tesco Express on Bridge Street on the evening of 10 October.
Soon after, Northamptonshire Police released a grainy CCTV image of the suspect who walked off with Bella in the direction of Market Hill.
Sarah Osborne said it was "pretty amazing" when she got the call Bella had been found
But after weeks of no news, the call that she had been found on the other side of England after being identified by her microchip came completely out-of-the-blue.
How she got to Bristol remains a mystery.
"We haven't managed to go back on her normal walks because it just hasn't felt right, but that will all change now," Mrs Osborne said.