Pero the sheepdog makes 240-mile solo trip to former home

A sheepdog born and raised in Ceredigion, near Aberystwyth, before being sold to a farm in Cumbria has made the remarkable 240-mile journey back to Wales seemingly on his own.

Four-year-old Pero had been sold by his owners, Alan and Shan James, to a farm in Cockermouth but escaped on 8 April and reappeared on the James's doorstep a fortnight later.

"He obviously wasn't happy in his new home; the farmer said he could see he didn't settle. He was shy," said Shan.

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"He took him to gather some sheep and that was the last time he saw Pero, he was going across the field and not thinking of turning back."

Pero will now stay with the family, who are appealing to anyone who may have seen him to come forward in order to understand how he managed to make the epic trip.

"No-one called us to say that they'd dropped the dog off and, even though he has a microchip, no-one's been in touch either to say that they've found him," said Shan. "It's a total mystery as to how Pero has managed to find his way back to us. We know that dogs can find their way home, but 240 miles is a long way to travel."

Nick Jones, of Alpha Dog Behaviour, told the Daily Telegraph that while "240 miles is in the realm of the fantastic", there were examples of dogs having made similar journeys.

In 2012, a black Labrador called Bucky surprised his owner, Mark Vessels, by travelling 500 miles from Winchester, Virginia, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where Vessels had moved for work, says the newspaper.

Stan Rawlinson, a dog behaviourist, told the paper that the likes of working dogs have an "amazing spatial memory" that means they can often act like homing pigeons, "using the magnetism in the earth" to return home.