Readers love a shaggy dog tale – especially when it has a purrfect happy ending

When animals are in the news, we always receive a smattering of emails extolling the virtues of pet ownership – the benefits of which will be in little doubt for many.

Almost any pet owner I know has a story about the lengths they have gone to make life better for their cat/dog/parrot etc. So my interest was piqued by two stories along those lines this week. The first was about a shih tzu called Teddy, who apparently hopped onto a bus in Sturry, near Canterbury. Teddy was eventually reunited with his owner, Christine Ricketts, after the driver of the bus realised that the “playful” dog was not with any of the passengers – and contact information was found on Teddy’s name tag.

Thanking the bus company’s staff, Ricketts said that it was brilliant to have Teddy back after he escaped when her garden gate blew open. “It’s just devastating when they go missing,” she told KentOnline. “You panic and you think the worst.” Now there is some distance from the event, however, Ricketts said she finds the thought of her dog waiting at a bus stop “quite funny”.