Smokey wasn't far from home, but with a wire snare around his neck, he might has well have been on the other side of the world. He wasn't going anywhere.

So the two-year-old golden retriever did what dogs do best: he dug. Then, he burrowed in and waited.

Smokey's owners, Lillian and Walter Hawco of Mount Carmel, about 80 kilometres south of St. John's on the Avalon Peninsula, told CBC Radio's the St. John's Morning Show their dog disappeared about a month ago.

The Hawcos have six retrievers and a sprawling wooded property. Smokey and another dog went to play in the woods one day back and January, but Smokey never came back.

Walter Hawco thinks the snare around Smokey's neck was intended for a fox or coyote (Submitted by Lillian Hawco)

The other dog was "frightened to death," Walter said.

The Hawcos searched for Smokey for days. Walter trekked through the snow, calling the dog.

"I'd go in every day and I'd sing out his name. You'd hear me out in the city," he said.

The Hawcos are taking Smokey to the vet to check out the gash on his neck. (Submitted by Lillian Hawco)

Eventually, the couple gave up hope, figuring if Smokey hadn't been killed by a coyote, he surely couldn't survive the frigid temperatures.

Smokey resurfaces

Then, on Sunday, a friend called Walter and told him he'd just found Smokey trapped in a snare. He untied the metal wire from the stick that held it in place, and Smokey bolted.

Two days later, after Walter dropped Lillian off at work, he returned home to find Smokey on the doorstep.

"Can't understand it," Walter said, trying to puzzle out how his young pup could have survived in a trap designed to catch foxes or coyotes and easily could have strangled a dog.

'That hole he dug was something else,' Lillian Hawco said of Smokey's burrow. (Submitted by Lillian Hawco)

"And all that cold weather we've had," Lillian chimed in, equally perplexed.

The Hawcos believe Smokey spend the entire month stuck in the snare, because the dog knows the area and wouldn't get lost or wander off. They figured he survived by burrowing into the ground to keep warm.

"That hole he dug was something else," Lillian said.

She's taking Smokey to a veterinarian and thinks his neck wounds might need stitches. She and her husband are unhappy that someone would set a snare and leave it.

Very good boy Smokey takes a well-deserved nap after his month-long ordeal. 10/10. (Submitted by Lillian Hawco)

While they can't say for certain how long Smokey was stuck, they think it could have been weeks, and that the snare could have even been set last year. The Hawcos believe snares should be checked at least every other day.

Lillian said the incident, though scary, won't change their habits when it comes to letting the dogs roam.

"They know the area," she said, "they don't go on the road. They're good dogs."

Read more article from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador