A DETERMINED Morwellham dog has defeated the odds and received a regional pet award for her courage.
Maud, a four-year-old mink hound, has been named by animal organisation the PDSA as their Pet Survivor of the Year for the South West, after spending days trapped on a barbed wire fence and subsequently having a leg amputated.
After escaping with her brother Archie from the garden of her owners, Susan and Geoffrey Tucker, Maud was eventually found two weeks later, emaciated and dehydrated, with one of her hind legs tangled in a barbed wire fence on farmland more than a mile from her home.
She was badly injured, in a terrible state and had to have emergency treatment from Roger Holden at Westmoor Veterinary Surgery, when it proved impossible to save her leg.
But within 24 hours, Maud was up and about on three legs and just eight weeks later she was enjoying five-mile walks in the Morwellham woods.
Mr Tucker, who has owned Maud and Archie since they were puppies, said: ?A few day after she disappeared we advertised in the paper, but we were getting to the point of giving up. She was in a very poor state when a farmer found her on his land, with her leg trapped in the fence with wire forming a kind of tourniquet round it.
?She has made a fantastic recovery and is so full of life, the same old Maudie. She can do nearly all the things she loved doing before. Probably the only thing she can?t do is stand on her back legs, with her front paws on your shoulders, to lick your face. She really does have such a fantastic personality.?
As regional winners, the Tuckers receive a framed portrait of Maud, a selection of pet products and go forward to the national finals where Maud joins two other dogs, three cats, a rabbit and a guinea pig from all over Britain.
Prizes for the national winner include a pet-friendly holiday break and a commemorative break. It is the tenth year the PDSA has given the award, which recognises exceptional courage in the face of a life-threatening condition.