A freight train driver took a break from his work in the locomotive to play the part of rescuer for a little lost pug which had run away from her owners the night before.

Poppy the pug had become frightened by a speeding car in Rutland, UK, and 60-year-old owners Dawn and Ian Bain had been out searching for her all night long.

At twenty-past eight the next morning, Michael Jones was nearing Langham Crossing in his freight train when he described seeing a “flash of red” from Poppy’s harness disappear into the bushes near the level crossing.

“All of a sudden there was just this tiny little face just looking back at me,” Jones told the BBC. “She was shaking and staring at the floor .”

He stopped and jumped out the cabin, grabbing the small dog that was delighted to see an friendly face. He called to tell the people at the crossing in Oakham, that he found the lost dog. Then he began to feed the pug water and crumpets.

At that same moment, Mrs. Bain arrived at the Oakham crossing to ask the employee there if any dog had been reported on the tracks that morning, to which the worker in the box replied that not only had one been found, but that it was on its way to them at that very moment.

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“My heart–it didn’t know whether to sing or stop,” said Mrs. Bain, still in her nightgown from the previous 12 hours of searching. “In comes this train with this beautiful man on, with Poppy sat on his knee. He cried .”

and I did too.

Poppy was totally unharmed from her ordeal, and is recovering from the shock of it all at home with her companion Tinker.

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The participants believed that Jones would not have been discovered if she had been less observant in the morning of a working day. Neither the Bains, nor anyone else thought to search for her near the railway tracks.

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