Hector, a deaf 14-year-old Norfolk Springer Spaniel with dementia, discovered in tunnel after going missing from Surfleet home

The story of a dog missing for three days had an astonishing fairytale ending – just yards from his home.

Hector, a deaf 14-year-old Norfolk Springer Spaniel with dementia, had taken the chance to flex his mischievous side by sneaking away from his Surfleet home.

He will never know the upset caused during the frantic 70 hours of searching which ensued. But there was a heartwarming outcome when he was found alive and bedraggled stuck in a drainage tunnel.

Thousands of people on Facebook were invested in Hector’s disappearing act after his owner Kimmy Stancer posted sightings appeals and asked people to check their properties.

Kimmy (46) said: “We would never have given up looking for him but then you start worrying about what you will find.

“You lose your dog and it’s like losing a child.

“It was such an overwhelming response from everyone to find him – I can’t ever thank people enough.”

The heartache began at about 8.30pm on Tuesday, June 24, when a gate at Hector’s Newlands Road home was accidentally left ajar.

A hunt for him quickly began and lasted until midnight without any success.

“We left his old blanket outside the front door in the hope that he would smell it but he didn’t return,” said Kimmy. “Then we were up at first light about 4am the next day looking again.”

Kimmy, a self-employed hairdresser, cleared her diary so that she could focus on the search with husband Ricky (46), who has had Hector and their other spaniel Pippa (13) since they were puppies. Kimmy and Ricky have been together seven years and have three children from previous relationships and one other dog.

Hector and Pippa have had a litter between them, with some of those puppies and their ‘grandpups’ kept within the Stancer family.

As the search for Hector wore on, Kimmy turned to social media with her first Facebook post about the missing dog.

More and more family, friends, neighbours and strangers joined in the hunt, with a drone being deployed too. South Lincs Volunteer Search and Rescue Team pitched in with manpower and production of posters which were put up all around the village.

With still no sign of Hector, hope of finding him alive began to fade.

Although he is a swimmer, there was a fear he might have gone into a drain or the River Glen and not been able to get out because of his weak hind quarters.

So the third day of the hunt was again spent combing the waterways and reedbeds.

The search area had spread to about two miles from Hector’s home. Yet the miracle occurred just at the end of the Stancers’ road.

Two of Kimmy’s friends – Nicky Boxall and Lynsey Cooper – were rechecking an area when Nicky looked into a concrete drainage tunnel and spotted what she thought were a pair of eyes peering back at her.

She shone a mobile phone torch into the darkness just as lovesick Pippa, who hadn’t eaten properly for two days, suddenly started frantically digging alongside it.

It was then that Hector moved and the three-day search was over.

Kimmy said: “The alarm was raised and between everybody, we managed to get him out.

“He was filthy, shaken and not really with it at all but were just so overwhelmed to have him back.

“He ate five pork chops in a row when we got home!”

After a few days of rest under watchful eyes, Hector was taken for his first walk since the drama.

“He was back to his normal bumbling self,” said Kimmy.

“Finding him was like a fairytale ending. He’s never been missing before so this was a real worry.

“We just want to thank everybody for their overwhelming support throughout.”

For Pippa too, having her lifelong friend back in the home is a very welcome result.