When Penny the Chihuahua bolted from her parents during a walk in the English countryside, Liam and Kelly were heartbroken. Spooked by a passing cyclist, Penny disappeared into the woods — and no amount of calling or searching brought her back.
Desperate, the couple turned to Mandy Butler of The Lost Dog Trapping Team, who explained that frightened dogs often circle back to the place where they first ran. Her advice was clear: stay put, leave a strong scent trail, and make home feel close by.
So Liam and Kelly did exactly that. They pitched a tent in the woods where Penny vanished and camped there night after night.
To sweeten the odds, they started cooking Penny’s absolute favorite food — sausages. For five evenings, the smoky, savory scent drifted through the trees, a signal meant just for Penny.
But nearly a week went by with no sign of their little dog. Shifting their search to a nearby town, they suddenly spotted her — sitting alone in a field.
Liam rushed toward her, but Penny was still too frightened to be caught. Again and again, she slipped away, even darting out of a trap after entering it.
“I was really despondent and losing hope,” Kelly admitted to The Dodo.
Then, on Penny’s birthday, the call they’d been waiting for finally came. A local family reported that a small Chihuahua had scratched at their door, trying to get inside. By sheer coincidence, the home looked almost identical to Liam and Kelly’s — and Penny likely mistook it for her own.
The reunion that followed was pure joy. “It was like Christmas,” Kelly said. “I just couldn’t sleep. I was so excited.”
Liam, who owns a tattoo supply company, celebrated Penny’s return in a permanent way: he got a tattoo of Penny surrounded by sausages, the food that had kept hope alive during their search.
And, of course, Penny was welcomed home with a sausage feast of her own.
“She got the zoomies,” Kelly said with a laugh. “It was so cute. It’s like she was saying, ‘I finally got my sausage.’”
