A beloved beagle hit by a train has managed to limp home with a broken leg after being missing for 10 days.
Two-year-old Ronnie was so scared by the fireworks that he ran out of his owner’s garden in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
Owner Jo Wackwett was working from the house at the time, but her partner Grant noticed the dog had jumped over the garden gate.
Flight attendant Jo feared the worst when a train driver reported hitting a dog matching her description.
“Ronnie is not usually afraid of fireworks but there was a particularly loud bang and my partner Grant saw him climbing our gate which was quite an effort as it is quite loud,” she said.
“As soon as I found out he had escaped, I posted on social media and was contacted by a train driver who saw Ronnie on the tracks and believes his train hit him when making a turn.
“It happened close to our local station, High Brooms, and when I sent him a photo of Ronnie he was sure it was the dog he had seen.
“The driver was devastated, but I got off the phone to wrap up what had happened.
“As there were no further sightings of Ronnie, we assumed the worst and told our daughter he was never coming home.
‘We were all heartbroken and completely mourning Ronnie.’
But after 10 days, a friend called Jo to tell her the good news – they spotted a badly beaten Ronnie in a local park and followed him to Jo’s house.
Realizing it was the missing dog, the person put a note in Jo’s mailbox saying they had taken Ronnie to the vet.
Reunited, Jo said: ‘I sat on the floor and he put his head on my shoulder for a proper hug and he left it there for a few minutes.
‘He was skinny, covered in nasty cuts and his leg was badly broken, but he was alive and that was all that mattered.’
Ronnie was treated for a broken leg at Anderson Abercromby, a veterinary clinic in Warnham.
Surgeon Federico Piccinno said: ‘Ronnie was extremely thin when he was admitted to the clinic and was unable to use his left rear leg or put weight on it.
“He also had multiple sores on his body that looked like friction burns. X-rays were taken which showed that his leg was broken in several places.
Federico said Ronnie’s injuries were caused by a low-to-medium energy impact, making it likely that the poor pup suffered “a glancing blow from a train”.
“He could also have been injured if he jumped off the train at the last minute and fell,” he said.
“His other injuries were very similar to burns or abrasions, which may have been caused by debris flying off the train tracks.”
Federico was worried about operating on Ronnie, as his injury was a few days old and his bones were healing in a way that would make the surgery complicated.
Instead of the metal plate, the surgeon used an external fixator, a metal frame, to realign Ronnie’s bones.
‘That was held in position for about 12 weeks,’ says Federico, ‘Ronnie handled it really well.
‘He was able to recover at home, but only allowed limited exercise on the leash so as not to run too much as he is a very energetic dog.’
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