Sign up to FREE email alerts from Mirror - Weekly #TeamDog Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A South Wales family's missing pet dog has been found ten years after he disappeared - and was just a day from being put down.

The Staffordshire Bull terrier, called Chance, literally lived up to his name after owners - mother and son Sion and Julie Coombes - got the surprise phone call.

As an 11-year-old schoolboy Sion had been left heartbroken when his much-loved pet vanished from his home in Barry in 2004.

He and his mum Julie Coombes put posters on lamp posts hoping to find the loveable black and white terrier but gave up hope and bought another dog for Sion to play with.

Yet miraculously, 10 years later they got a surprise phone call from a dog's home to say that he had been found 20 miles away in Newport.

Picked up weak and hungry in a city centre underpass, he was transferred to Coronation Kennels, where because of his age and his condition he was going to be put down.

However, a thoughtful vet decided to scan him for a microchip and found Julie's name and address.

Like a scene reminiscent of heart-wrenching film Homeward Bound, the now 13-year-old dog was returned home.





(Image: Wales News Service)

Speaking to South Wales Evening Post Julie, said: "It was like something from a children's Disney movie.

"I had a phone call to say my dog had been found - I thought they'd made a mistake because we have two dogs and they were both in the house.

"Then they said it was a black and white Staffordshire - my heart leapt, I knew it was Chance.

"We went to the dog's home and recognised Chance straight away.

"And as soon as we said his name his ears pricked up as if he'd never forgotten us.

"It was very emotional seeing him again after 10 years."

Speaking about how he disappeared she said: "Sion when to school and I let him out in the garden, I went back out to let him in and he wasn’t there.

"We knocked on doors, looked everywhere...and we never heard a thing."

Sam, now 21 and a student at the University of Glamorgan, said: "It’s crazy - I never thought he would come back, at all."

How he spent the last ten years will remain a mystery.