A Chinese dog owner has been reunited with his runaway husky after a humorous appeal for help – in which he said anyone who found the serial truant was welcome to keep it – went viral on social media.

The owner’s despairing notice was posted on Sunday evening after the dog named Huazhu, which means flowery pig, slipped its leash and ran off after another dog in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, on Sunday morning.

Wang Wei, a property agent in his twenties, posted a missing poster near the scene of the dog’s disappearance that read: “Looking for a dog, named Huazhu (does not respond to his name), male, aged one, coloured grey and black.

“Lost on July 22 on the Second Ring Road Bridge. I think he wants to be a stray dog. If someone finds him and wants to keep him, please go ahead (he runs away every two to three days, I can't take it).

“Please treat him well, just feed him normal dog food, but you have to add 5kg of chicken breast meat to his diet every week. If you don't want to keep him, please just give him back to me.”

The appeal appears to have struck a chord as pictures of his poster started circulating on social media and news outlets picked up the story.

On Wednesday Wang told the South China Morning Post that his plea had been answered after a woman contacted him via WeChat to tell him she had found the pet nearby. She later returned it to its owner.

It emerged that the dog he was chasing was a female husky named Meinuu, which means beautiful girl. A post on Weibo described how the amorous Huazhu followed its new “girlfriend” home and was found by a family named Guo.

Wang bought the dog in April last year when it was two months old. He said he lives alone and has been “really busy with work lately” but tried to spend time with his dog every day.

However, he said the dog often ran off and refused to answer its name and he was always having to chase after it.

Earlier this week he told the portal Cover News: “I have named him, but he doesn’t respond to his name. Instead, he gets excited when he sees his own kind.

“I usually try to take some time to be with him, for half an hour in the morning and another half an hour in the evening. Huazhu disappeared once before in March and it was pure luck I was able to find him then.”

Wang confessed that the dog’s latest disappearing act had really worried him, adding: “Now that my dog has finally been found, I am really thankful to the people who helped me. After losing my dog so many times, I have learned my lesson. I feel like my treasure has fallen into my hands again.”

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