Zeus was a bit of a sorry sight after he as found tangled up in bracken on a Lake District fell (Picture: North News)

These pictures show the moment that a dog was reunited with its owner after getting trapped in bracken for two weeks.

Zeus, a Bordeaux Mastiff, is believed to have been spooked on Place Fell in the Lake District before bolting.

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He spent two weeks drinking rain water before eventually being discovered by fell-walkers Jez Starkey, 42, and Adam Briggs, 35.

They had gone looking for him after seeing a social media campaign to find the lost dog.


He was discovered tangled in bracken and they gave him a chicken sandwich before leading him back to safety and to his owner.

Jez said: ‘We came across the dog stuck in four foot high bracken. He could only move about two feet.

He had lost quit a bit of weight but his heroes came armed with fresh water and a chicken sandwich (Picture: North News)

‘If it hadn’t have been raining I don’t think he would have survived. He was very skinny and had lost a lot of weight. If it hadn’t have been raining I don’t think he would have survived.



‘When we got to the dog it was very scared, but when I got my sandwich out it calmed down. We couldn’t stop smiling, we couldn’t believe we had found him.

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‘In two weeks, if he wasn’t tangled, he could have been miles and miles away.’

Adam said: ‘I got to him first, he was curled up on the floor facing down the hill. I thought he was dead. He was six foot away from the river so he couldn’t reach it.

‘The ground was quite wet so he was able to drink from puddles on the ground. When I shouted his name his tail wagged and he looked up and got up on his

feet.

Zeus is a 10-month-old Bordeaux Mastiff and he is believed to have bolted when he was spooked by something on the fell (Picture: North News)

Pictured with his heroes Adam Briggs (left) and Jez Starkey (right) (Picture: North News)

‘We were both super shocked. I was amazed that he had survived.’

Jez, from Whitehaven, Cumbria, l saw numerous missing posters online about Zeus and offered to help look for the dog.

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Hundreds of people have tried unsuccessfully to help find him, with one man

using a drone to search.

Jez asked his friend Adam, an experienced fell runner from Cockermouth, Cumbria, if he would climb the fell with him to try and find Zeus.

They heard a dog barking on their way up the fell, which is 2,156 ft high, and drew on a map where they thought the noise had came from.

Jez said: ‘We saw a group of fell walkers and told them about the dog. They

said they also heard a dog barking.

They decided to go looking for Zeus after seeing a social media campaign when he went missing (Picture: North News)

‘I said I’m sure that’s got to be the dog. When we saw him we knew straight away he was the right dog. He had two big ticks on him but apart from that he was fine.’

After being checked over at the vets, Zeus was reunited with his owner’s family.

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Jez and Adam have spoken to Zeus’s delighted owner, who works offshore and is believed to be from Kendal, over the phone.

Jez said: ‘He (Zeus) hadn’t been let off the lead, he was still attached to his lead and harness. He pulled it out of the guy’s s hand and ran off.

‘I think it was his first fell walk.’

Adam added: ‘We spoke to him (the owner) on the phone and his brother collected the dog for him.’