An ‘ecstatic’ army veteran managed to rescue a dog that had been missing for five days in remote Dorset countryside using his thermal drone.
Dave Rimmer, 41, who specialised in aerial imaging across multiple tours of Iraq between 2001 and 2008, responded to an appeal on Facebook after Ted, a nine year old cavapoo, bolted from his dogsitter after hearing a gunshot.
Several search parties went out in the forest near Wareham last week with drones looking for Ted but there was no sign of him through the foliage.
‘It was pretty surreal that I found him because he was missing for a fairly long time,’ Dave explained, ‘and then the feeling went from surreal to ecstatic.’
The ex-military man went down to the location where Ted had disappeared early on Sunday morning when the temperature was cooler to get a better chance of picking up a heat source, and within just four minutes, he hit the jackpot.
Dave located a figure by a river which he thought may have been a rabbit, however, when he switched to the standard camera he saw it was Ted curled up asleep in a ball.
It was an inaccessible area so Dave liaised with the local farmer at Carey Farm and waded through a ford to reach Ted, who he scooped into his arms.
The ex-army hero said: ‘The search launched on Facebook and various people were going out with their drones.
‘I woke up early Sunday morning when it was cooler to go and take a look. It was quite foggy so we couldn’t see much with a normal camera, but you could see quite a bit with the thermal camera.
‘I saw a heat return on the right-hand side of the river. Initially I thought it could have been a rabbit, but I continued to zoom in and it was getting bigger and bigger, and I knew it was too big to be a rabbit.
‘When I turned to the visible camera, there he was, little Ted. He was fast asleep.
‘The remote area wasn’t very accessible though. I marked it on the map, jumped in the car and walked ten minutes through a farm through quite tough terrain.
‘I was a bit emotional because I have dogs and so I knew how the owners must have felt.’
Ted was reunited with his owners Melanie Rivera, 49, and Sergio Spicer, 55. The latter said: ‘We were just ecstatic when he was found. He is like a surrogate child to us.
‘We have had Teddy since he was a puppy and he has never done anything like this.
‘We are just so grateful for Dave and the entire Wareham community for all of their help.’