Dog survived for four days after falling into well, and was found by his twin sister

A reader has contacted us with "a story that has a happy ending that I thought you might be interested in sharing".

Pauric Keegan from Ballinagore, County Westmeath said the story has brightened up a lot of people's lives in the last week and he wanted to share it.

"Last Thursday our dog Richie went missing.

"We assumed he had been stolen.

Although we kept searching, we were beginning to fear the worst: we might not see Richie again.

"We put together an extensive social media campaign, which had several thousand shares and comments, including from Lucy Kennedy and social media influencer Niamh O'Sullivan.

"The users of lost dog pages on Facebook are some of the most devoted people I have ever encountered and were so helpful and encouraging.

"In the end, after four days of searching, we found our boy Richie.

"He had fallen down an uncovered well. The well was hidden and very hard to see.

"The well was as deep as a full length ladder." (Story continues below image.)

"Miraculously, the poor dog hadn't been injured and on the fourth day we found him.

"His twin sister Sally had heard him and led us to him, and we got him out of the well." (Story continues below image.)

"He had been down there four days and was noticeably thinner when we rescued him." (Story continues below image.)

The whole community in Ballinagore and the surrounding villages really got involved in finding Richie and in the end it was worth all the hard work.