A FAMILY are overjoyed that their precious dog was found after she fled a terrifying car crash.

Spaniel Holly fled the scene after her owner Amanda Henry’s car flipped onto a field on October 14 near Minishant.

The impact of the collision forced the carrier she was inside to fly out the boot and Holly as well as two other dogs escaped.

But the petrified pooch ran off in another direction from the other dogs sparking a frantic search to get her back.

Family friend Richard Binkhorst led the rescue mission and helped scour farmland and roads close to the crash site in the hope she would return.

On Wednesday, October 30 he received a call from a woman, Shona from Crosshill who was out putting up posters and spotted Holly in a field just half a mile from the crash site.

When Richard and Amanda’s husband George arrived they could see Holly in amongst a makeshift den hiding away from everyone else.

Richard told the Advertiser: “We just put some food out and stuff to keep her in the area.When it got dark, I decided to see if I could walk up to her, so I took it very slow trying not to spook her,

“Eventually I came quite close but it was touch and go to see if she would crawl but she didn’t. And then I spent half an hour on the floor trying to inch my way closer to gain her trust enough so that she could be caught

“She was proper tucked away within a nice wee den that she was in which was some bamboo shoots and then a wee pocket and she was in there.”

“She was tucked away and she was timid because as you would expect she’s been living wild for two weeks.

“I’d like to think she recognised me but you never know and by just taking it really, really slow and inching my way forward – I spent half an hour doing that last wee bit, allowing her to get used to me – and then I was able to put the lead on and grab her.”

Holly was taken to County Vets in Maybole for an initial check and some antibiotics.

She had some minor cuts and bruises after her long time running wild, but was able to return home to the delight of her family.

The Advertiser previously told how owner Amanda was confident she could be found, and Richard despite the long search never gave up hope.

He said: “I always remained optimistic. I was pretty sure that’d we’d get her. We hoped it was sooner rather than later.

“The next day when I saw her you could hardly tell that she’d been gone, she’s just happy to be home and adjusting really well, she’s just a bit on the skinny side. It’s fantastic.”

Amanda who suffered a broken back after the crash was unable to go out and look for Holly, but she kept on track with very step of the rescue mission.

And she has hailed Shona who spotted Holly, for her incredible efforts over the past few weeks.

She said: “Shona from Crosshill, has just been unbelievable that girl has worked endlessly, she’s ran back and forward with stuff for us

“She took all the night vision cameras to the boys last night, took out sandwiches for them, she’s just been incredible.”

As well as a community effort, the search also took on a high-tech approach with powerful thermal vision equipment worth thousands was used to try and trace Holly.

Amanda received the equipment from a friend in Fife Jim who drove the specialist device from Glenrothes to South Ayrshire.

“You can be standing there in the pitch black they won’t know your there but it will go red.

That’s how they managed to keep watching her without terrifying her

“Richard also has torches that can have red and green lights on them, if you put a white light on to a dog it will spook. Things like that were all part of getting it back

“A lot was spent but I’m very fortunate that my friend from Fife is where the thermal came from, he drove all the way from Glenrothes to bring that to us.That piece of kit is worth £5,000.”

Holly was able to return home last Thursday, October 31 and has settled back in.