A COUPLE have spoken of their joy after being reunited with their pet dog – an amazing seven years after she vanished from their garden.Rosie and Chris Keeble had given up all hope of finding their Lurcher, also called Rosie, after she went missing in 1997.

A COUPLE have spoken of their joy after being reunited with their pet dog – an amazing seven years after she vanished from their garden.

Rosie and Chris Keeble had given up all hope of finding their Lurcher, also called Rosie, after she went missing in 1997.

The husband and wife, from Creeting St Mary near Stowmarket, had put notices up in shop windows and followed up sightings in Norfolk.

But, after resigning themselves to having lost Rosie, Mr Keeble, a 64-year-old agricultural trainer, got two more dogs for his wife, an Alsatian called Babe and a Collie/Retriever cross, called Sam.

However, little could prepare them for a phone call several days ago saying Rosie had been found near Chelmsford – the identity of the hound and her owner revealed when a vet scanned a chip in the dog.

Housewife Mrs Keeble, 67, said yesterday: "She went missing from our garden here, we put appeals in the paper, and whenever someone called we would rush out and see if we could find her.

"We were hunting for her for four months, driving out, asking everyone, putting notices in every shop we could think of.

"The last sighting of her was in October 1997, and we have no idea where she has been. We think maybe she was picked up by travellers and used to catch rabbits.

"The other night we had a phone call, two children had found her in Essex, the other side of Chelmsford. They took her to a vet who scanned her and because we had had her chipped, our name came up.

"We collected her from the vets and sent a thank you letter to the children, who live in Heybridge, Essex.

"I had given up hope years ago, thought she was maybe dead. She is very traumatized, a little thin, and possibly deaf, and is getting used to our two other dogs now.

"She will get lots of tender loving care. I can't really take it in that she is back, I spent so many nights crying wondering what had happened to her after she vanished. I just wonder what she has been through all these years.''

Mr Keeble added: "We are delighted, after all this time you wonder what happened to her. We are thrilled, she was very special to my wife and she been upset for years.

"She is an old lady now and we are looking forward to looking after her in her old age.''

Rosie is now enjoying her food and walks with the couple, and at 11 years old, is looking forward to enjoying the easy life being pampered by her owners.