Hamish, the dog who became a social media favourite after boarding a train to Dublin unaccompanied, is to be reunited with his family.

Tyson’s real owners confirmed their identity by providing photos to the My Lovely Horse animal rescue centre in Co Kildare. The pup was micro-chipped on Thursday afternoon before being reunited with his owners in Kildare.

Ted Maher, the Irish Rail worker who volunteers at My Lovely Horse and looked after Tyson on Wednesday night, described him as “a cracking little dog”.

He added that social media had become a great tool for reuniting lost pets with their owners.

Hamish update!



🎉 His owners have been found!

🐶 His real name is Tyson!

🍟 He’s getting chipped by @MyLovelyHorseR so if he goes a wandering again, he can be found

💕 Family reunion TBC

💶 The movie rights are exorbitant!



👏 Thank you to everyone for spreading the word! pic.twitter.com/Bt4pJAY7hr — Iarnród Éireann (@IrishRail) April 4, 2019

Hamish takes a nap after his ordeal. Photograph: Iarnród Éireann

The Iarnród Éireann Twitter account witnessed an unprecedented spike in numbers on Wednesday after the initial tweet was sent out looking for Tyson’s owners to come forward.

“On a typical weekday we would have about 100-150,000 impressions on tweets per day but yesterday we had 916,000 impressions,” said spokesman Barry Kenny.

“It’s not the busiest, that was the Beast from the East last year, but it’s comfortably the busiest so far this year.”

The dog was found on the 8.46am Sallins-Heuston service on Wednesday, after reportedly getting on at Sallins station.

He was given the name by a member of staff and slept off his arduous journey in Heuston station.

From being a forlorn and confused mutt, Tyson is evidently the most popular dog in the country at present.