“We went out looking in the rain for her,” her owner Lou Day said. 

“She has always been found by us or she gets picked up, we would always get a call from a vet saying, ‘We’ve got Holly here.’”

But this time it was different. The frantic search for the beloved dog she and her partner Jason Gunton had adopted from Tighes Hill RSPCA three-and-a-half years earlier lead nowhere. 

They even drove to Rutherford RSPCA only to discover an impounded black staffy was not theirs. 

Unbeknown to Ms Day, Holly was picked up by a neighbour shortly after her escape. Due to the neighbour’s work with an animal rescue organisation she had a microchip scanner.

The woman scanned the dog, located a chip and made contact with the dog’s owner.  However it was Holly’s previous owner she contacted. Somehow Holly had two micro-chips. 

The first linked her to a family she had spent her first nine years with. They had called her shadow.  

Ms Day learnt Holly had been handed over to the original owner through a Facebook post on a lost and found animals page.

She called the RSPCA. The organisation arranged for the dog to be brought in. It was confirmed she had two microchips and two owners. 

“The RSPCA said when they first got Holly they couldn’t find the chip,” Ms Day said. “It was not in the normal place and they put her up for adoption.”

Ms Day and Mr Gunton were gutted. They initially considered asking Holly’s previous owner if they would consider shared custody.

“We decided it would be too traumatic,” Ms Day said. “It’s been really full-on.” 

They have decided to just accept the situation and the RSPCA has offered to provide them with a new pet for free. This time they are going to get a cat. 

The RSPCA was not immediately available for comment.