The owner of a dog that went missing in Islington on Halloween has been reunited with her pet – following a viral social media campaign involving Jeremy Clarkson, Ricky Gervais and Jeremy Corbyn.

Islington Gazette: Wolfy escaped from Kate Spicer's brother's house in Tufnell Park Road on October 31Wolfy escaped from Kate Spicer's brother's house in Tufnell Park Road on October 31 (Image: Archant)

Wolfy had been missing for nine days when Kate Spicer finally got him back on Monday.

“It feels like Christmas Day – there’s a sense of real excitement and happiness,” a joyful Miss Spicer, 46, told the Gazette just hours after her dog was found.

Wolfy, a six-year-old Lurcher, had escaped from her brother’s house in Tufnell Park Road, while she was at a wedding in Surrey.

“Sadly, Wolfy felt a bit abandoned, and sat by the front door waiting for our return,” said Miss Spicer. “When my niece answered the door to a trick-or-treater, Wolfy shot out very fast – Lurchers are pretty good runners – down Tufnell Park Road. He ran like a bullet up Holloway Road, shooting across static traffic and into Upper Holloway train station.”

Despite the best efforts of Miss Spicer’s brother, he eventually lost sight of the dog.

The journalist immediately rushed back to London to look for Wolfy – “I was bawling my eyes out most of the way,” she said.

After receiving sightings from people in the area, Miss Spicer frantically combed Finsbury Park and Stroud Green, calling out her dog’s name. She widened her search through social media later that evening using the hashtag #findwolfy.

The following morning, she woke up to find that her appeal had been re-tweeted thousands of times. Among those who retweeted it were broadcaster and dog-owner Jeremy Clarkson, who has almost 6 million followers; journalist Kay Burley; comedian Ricky Gervais; and Labour leader and Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn.

Jeremy Clarkson’s tweet alone was retweeted almost 10,000 times.

Since then, Miss Spicer has been chasing leads from people claiming to have seen Wolfy in Finsbury Park, Tufnell Park, Highgate and Hampstead.

The dog was finally found on Monday morning by employees at the accident repair centre, M&A Coachworks, in Highgate Road, who quickly alerted Miss Spicer’s boyfriend after finding his number on Wolfy’s collar.

Miss Spicer was actually laying a scent trail on the streets of Tufnell Park, using a bottle of her own urine and a dirty sock, when her boyfriend called to say that Wolfy was behind a fence by the railway in Highgate Road.

“When the people at the coachworks first saw him, he was howling and trying to dig under the railway fence,” she said.

She immediately jumped into a cab. “When I found him, I just held him so tight and cried into his fur.”

The first thing she did was take him to a vet, who found that Wolfy had a broken tail, various cuts and bruises, and had lost six pounds in weight. But the dog was well enough to go home on Monday afternoon.

Miss Spicer said: “I feel like normal service can resume. I’ve been in a weird bubble of sadness for nine days.

“Weirdly enough, I was told by my family last night [on Sunday] to stop chasing crazy leads about Wolfy’s whereabouts.”

She now plans to invite all those who helped find Wolfy to a pub in Tufnell Park and buy them a drink as a special thank you.

“Everyone who reported a sighting contributed - by letting us know that he was still alive and we should keep on hunting.”