'Overwhelming support helped to bring Toffee home'

A missing dachshund has been found in a "needle in a haystack search" after three days in the Manx countryside.

Owners Leanne Allcote and Chris Feeney said "overwhelming" support from the local community and a group of volunteers meant they "never gave up hope" that Toffee would be found.

The two-year-old pooch went missing on 21 January after uncharacteristically running away from his daycare group in Foxdale.

Leanne admitted she had been very worried, not least because of their proximity to a busy road, rivers, plantations and deep ravines.

Leanne and Chris described the terrain as "treacherous", made even worse by the poor weather conditions, with deep bogs and marshes very difficult to navigate for a small dog.

Noodle's Canine Rescue volunteers led the search, which was helped by land owners, police, coastguards, Castletown fire station, and members of the public.

Toffee went missing on the outskirts of the South Barrule plantation and was later found within St Marks Country Park, some 1.5 miles (2.5 km) away.

Leaving the search at night was the hardest part for Toffee's owners, who said he was usually "under blankets" and "cuddled up".

"Knowing he was out there in the wind and rain, it was just awful - it was just devastating," Leanne said.

In the days leading up to Toffee's rescue, she said there were times when it was difficult to remain hopeful due to the "vast amount of land" that had to be covered.

She said: "It was a needle in a haystack situation."

But things began to look up after a huge social media response from the community.

Leanne said "loads of people came down" to help with the search, even taking time off work.

She said it was "incredible [that] people we didn't know" had come to help.

Leanne reserved special praise for Noodle's Canine Rescue, which she described as a "vital service when stuff like this happens".

Noodle's is a group of volunteers that came together last June after a dog called Elvis had been missing for three months.

He was eventually found.

Volunteer Aaron O'Reilly said technology had played a big part in tracking Toffee down.

Since the group formed, it has successfully retrieved all 22 dogs reported to them as missing.

Of them 15 were found using drones.

And it was a thermal imagine drone that finally spotted Toffee in a field, where teams were able to corner him.

Owner Chris was able to grab the line and slowly approach, knowing Toffee would be in "survival mode".

But Chris said, after a few moments, they saw "his tail start to wag" and once he recognised them he "was so happy to see us".

He said he felt "pure relief" and they were surprised at how well he had coped in the wild.

Leanne said while Toffee was a bit thinner and "he smelled really bad", he was in remarkably good shape.

As soon as they got home he went to his toy box and wanted to play, she said, joking that Toffee emerged "better off than we did, covered in bruises and cuts".

Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.