Hunt for Owners As Dog Found on Highway Reported Missing 10 Years Ago

A dog recently found on a highway in Essex, England, was first reported as missing from the county of Cornwall, some 300 miles away, almost a decade ago, according to a lost dog group.

Ruby, a Staffordshire cross, was found running around the M11 highway in Harlow, Essex, on Saturday. It was discovered that she was microchipped and was reported missing from Cornwall, located over 300 miles away, nearly a decade ago.

While the lost dog group, Dog Lost, found Ruby had been microchipped, they had no information about the whereabouts of her owner, or whether she had a new owner.

According to American Humane, an animal welfare organization, 10 million pets are lost in the U.S. every year. It said only 15 percent of dogs and 2 percent of cats in shelters without ID tags or microchips are reunited with their owners.

After Ruby was recovered, images of her were shared on social media.

Karen Harding, of Dog Lost, told Newsweek: "We are still searching for this beautiful girl's owner. She was originally registered on PetLog database, marked as missing we believe, from Cornwall.

"Her name is or was Ruby and her microchip was registered in 2013, so she is approximately 9 years old. We have a similar looking dog missing, also called Ruby, listed on our DogLost website, but no details for an owner.

"We have tried absolutely everything to find her original owner and her current owner, but no luck sadly."

Kew Vets, who took Ruby in after she was found, told Cornwall Live: "The dog is still with us, but today or tomorrow it will go to the dog warden."

The missing dog post for Ruby has been shared more than 4.7 million times since it was posted on DogLost.

Earlier this month a family was reunited with their long-lost dog, Sadie, which resulted in footage of the event going viral on social media.

The viral clip, shared on TikTok by the dog's owner under the name Morganjonesmessina, showed the family screaming with joy as they saw Sadie return home.

Since being shared on the social media platform, the clip has attracted more than 630,000 views and 85,100 likes.

In another case, a lost dog managed to narrowly escape an alligator attack during Hurricane Ian.

The Lake County Florida Animal Shelter said the dog was found by animal control workers in Eustis, in Lake County.

Staff told Fox 35 that the dog needed emergency surgery and that he was given antibiotics "to ensure it doesn't get infected during the healing process."