A Jack Russell terrier was reunited with his owners last night after a lost weekend that included a pitch invasion at Croke Park during Sunday's International Rules Test.
The one-year-old dog, known as "Brock", went missing from his Ballyfermot home in Dublin on Friday. His owners, Anita and Martin Byrne, organised a search, but their next sighting of him was to be on television, as the terrier joined Irish and Australian football players chasing the ball during the early stages of Sunday's game. Eventually apprehended by match stewards, he then went missing again.
After his picture appeared in yesterday's newspapers, however, the Byrnes were contacted by a family in Thomas Street in Dublin's south inner city.
"Their kids found him on the street and took him in, thinking he was a stray," Mrs Byrne said last night. "They bought him a collar and toys and dog biscuits and everything.
Then they saw him in the paper and realised he was ours." She "hadn't a clue" how the dog got from west Dublin to Croke Park - or back to Thomas Street. "He's never run away before. It's unbelievable, really." But he was none the worse after his travels, she added. "He's just knackered."
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