Canine commuter home with a happy ending

Princess with PC O’Connor and PSCO Howard and her owner Amanda Hughes

Princess, a four year old Staffordshire Terrier, found herself far from home after she escaped from her back garden in Rochdale on Friday 2 January, and headed to Castleton station where she hopped on board a Northern Rail train to Manchester for a doggy day trip.

She jumped off the train at Manchester Victoria where she was met by station staff who handed her over to PC Christopher O’Connor and PCSO Lee Howard.

When they realised Princess was travelling alone, they set about attempting to find her owners  and set off, with Princess in tow, to the Dogs Trust to have her scanned for a micro chip.

Princess’ owners, the Hughes family, were soon tipped off that she had taken a trip into town on the train.

Amanda Hughes said: “I knew she’d got a train into town within 40 minutes of her going missing. I’d posted it on my facebook account and someone replied saying they’d spotted her on Twitter and facebook. They said they were sure it was Princess but I thought it’s just not something she would do. We don’t live far from the station, but we always walk her in the other direction so how she found her way there and then jumped on a train is a mystery but she is a bit of a character.”

Now recovered from her adventure, and with a new micro chip, it’s unlikely Princess will be getting a rail pass anytime soon, “The funny thing is, when I collected her and we went home on the train she was scared stiff yet she managed to make the journey all on her own. I can laugh about it now that she’s safe and sound, but at the time we were worried sick,” added Amanda.

PC Christopher O’Connor who, along with PCSO Howard, escorted Princess to safety after her adventure said: “She’s a lovely dog and she was a real pleasure to deal with, she was so affectionate and friendly. This was definitely one of our nicer jobs, we got a great deal of satisfaction from seeing her get home safely.

“It’s great to think that, thanks to a lot of teamwork with colleagues at Northern Rail and Greater Manchester Police, there was a happy ending.”