Shadow returns to secure place

Shadow, the dog that went missing from the Gozo SPCA last week, was found on Monday evening at the Armed Forces of Malta's base in Nadur, the very place she had first been picked up as a stray four years ago.

The soldiers on duty recognised her from the photograph published in The Times and called the Gozo SPCA to pick up the cold and frightened animal.

Shadow, which has been with the Gozo SPCA for over four years, ran away after a farmer threw stones at her in a field near Xagħra on the previous Tuesday.

The brown, white-flecked bitch had been in the care of a couple of foreign dog-minders. She had managed to slip out of their house and into a nearby field and while the couple went inside to fetch her leash, a farmer who had just ploughed the field started pelting her with rocks.

Terrified, Shadow ran away and had not been seen again until Monday.

A spokesman for the Gozo SPCA recalled that four years ago Shadow had found herself at the AFM base where the soldiers fed her daily until she was picked up by the SPCA.

"Did she remember the kindness she received from the soldiers so long ago," the spokesman wondered, while thanking everyone for helping in the search.

Shadow was returned to the Gozo SPCA Rehoming Centre.