A mystery surrounds how a dog that went missing from a Huntingdon garden was found 50 miles away in St Albans.

Mother-of-three Tracey Hunter, 42, a teaching assistant at Huntingdon School, said she was cooking dinner on September 2 when she realised something wasn’t right.

She had just let her dog, Becks – a Yorkshire and Cairn Terrier cross – into the gated front garden for a 10-minute runaround when she realised it has gone a bit too quiet.

“She was in and out of the house and then it got quiet,” she said, “but as the gate was closed I thought she couldn’t have got out.”

Miss Hunter, of Drivers Avenue, acted quickly when she realised Becks was missing and soon she had family and friends searching the streets for the lost pooch.

“We got the neighbours out but no-one had seen her. We couldn’t find her. We put it on Facebook but it was really strange that no-one had seen her, not one person had said they had seen a dog.”

A three-day search was brought to an end after the dog was handed into Medivets surgery in St Albans, where her Petlog microchip was scanned to provide the details leading back to Miss Hunter.

“We searched everywhere. On the Thursday I got a phone call from Watford. They left a message on my answer phone saying they found my dog. We live in Huntingdon so how on earth she got there I don’t know.”

She added: “It scared the life out of me. Without the microchip, I would have never got her back.”

Miss Hunter said she thought Becks might have been snatched by someone but later released.

Three-year-old Becks is now back home with Tracey and her three children Ellie, 14, Scott, 18, and 20-year-old Josh.