Alfie, somewhat agitated at first, lapped up three bowls of milk and then went for a long snooze. The missing 18-monthold collie was clearly glad to be home again.
The fear was that he had become a victim of a canine caper which has been striking fear into the hearts of dog-lovers in Cork over the past few months and that he had been abducted and sold to the highest bidder.
From many areas of the city there have been reports of a "man with a van" who has been seen chatting up dogs, befriending them and luring them into the vehicle.
It seems that if he steals dogs on one side of Cork, he sells them on the other, so that a southside dog finds itself in a northside neighbourhood, and vice versa.
Alfie's owner, Mrs Helen Ahern, of Ballygarvan, was so concerned she telephoned Cork's 96FM radio station on Friday and quickly heard from other callers that a man and a van had indeed been seen in the area, near Douglas.
People contacted the programme to say that a trade in kidnapped dogs was going on and they had fallen prey as well.
But good news was at hand. The Animals' Home in Cork also heard the appeal and, from the description of Alfie, recognised that it was a stray dog handed in on Thursday night.
Gardai said they had no knowledge of a trade in stolen dogs in Cork.