A pet dog which turned tail and went missing after travelling half way around the world to the North-East was re-united with her delighted owner yesterday.

Honeybear - a five-year-old Chinese street dog - journeyed 14,000 miles from her original home in the Far-East only to do a runner just a few yards from her destination in the Northumberland village of Guide Post.

Distraught owner Sandra Adams, 54, a university lecturer who lives and works in Bahrain, enlisted the help of a UK internet dog tracking service in a desperate bid to find her treasured pet.

Now - after being missing for more than two weeks - Honeybear is back after she was caught 15 miles away by Newcastle dog warden Anthony Hoggins, who recognised the runaway pooch from one of hundreds of posters circulated in the North-East by the website doglost.co.uk.

The website received a mammoth 160 postings on the search for Honeybear, which also saw a Newcastle taxi driver spread the word to 400 fellow cabbies to keep an eye out for her.

Yesterday Sandra, who was reunited with the dog at the home of her mother, Amy Adams, in Guide Post, thanked the website, its local volunteer Sharon Clark, of Ashington, and council dog wardens for their efforts to track down her missing pet.

The story began in 1999 when Sandra, a literature lecturer, discovered Honeybear while she was living in Macau off the coast of China. She was walking her other dog, Panda, along a canal when a tiny, abandoned puppy appeared on its own and she decided to adopt it.

In June, 2001, Sandra moved to Oklahoma in America with Honeybear and Panda and in November last year she was offered a temporary job in Bahrain, so arranged to have her two pets shipped to England to be looked after by her mum.

But earlier this month, when the delivery driver unlocked the dogs' crate in the middle of the street just a few yards from her mother's door in Guide Post, Honeybear ran off and disappeared. When Sandra heard in Bahrain that her pet was missing, she searched the internet and contacted doglost.co.uk, which in turn asked Ashington dog lover Sharon to help launch a local search.

Sharon, who was recently re-united with her own lost pet dog, Jade, following support from the dog-lost website, arranged to have posters of Honeybear displayed all over the Ashington and Morpeth area.

Others were sent to dog wardens and vets across the North-East by doglost.co.uk - and eventually, following a number of reported sightings, Mr Hoggins managed to trap Honeybear on Monday night in the Newbiggin Hall area of Newcastle.

Yesterday Sandra, who is single and has a 20-year-old son Rene, said: "I was absolutely dumbfounded and distraught when I was told that Honeybear had run off within yards of my mother's home after all the travelling she has done across the world and the trouble I had to go to get her and Panda to the UK from the USA.

"I found the doglost website on the internet and they got on the case immediately. I was told Honeybear had been spotted by a dog warden in the Newcastle area last Wednesday and that a man had been feeding her but could not get near her.

"I have been exceptionally depressed since she went missing on June 11, even though I knew I was coming to my mother's on holiday. Now I am just ecstatic to have her back. I would really like to thank the website, its local volunteer, the dog wardens and everyone who helped find her.

"They have been absolutely splendid and I am very, very lucky because without their efforts I don't see how I would have got Honeybear back. She is very thin, has injured her nose and has an eye infection but mentally she seems none the worse for her adventure."

Sandra, who starts a new job at the New York Institute of Technology in Bahrain in September, plans to take Honeybear and Panda with her.

Jayne Hayes, who launched the doglost.co.uk website 18 months ago after her own pet was stolen, said: "We were glad to help Sandra find Honeybear and Sharon did a great job of coordinating the search in the North-East.

"We need more volunteers and helpers to help re-unite owners with their dogs."

Jayne can be contacted via the website and on (01909) 730-077.