After being buried alive for five days Brownie, a five-year-old Jack Russell, was rescued from a collapsed rabbit hole.

Brownie’s owner Anne Brown, who lives at Port Erin, took him and her other dog Rosie for a walk in the St Jude’s area in the north of the island when he went missing.

’Suddenly Brownie took off after a rabbit,’ she said. ’I waited for an hour and went looking for him, but he had just disappeared.’

Anne stayed with a relative, who lives nearby, that night hoping he would turn up. Over the next few days she searched for him enlisting the help of relatives, friends and pet rescue group ’Lost and found pets Isle of Man’.

’The group gave invaluable hints and tips and told us how to search for him field by field,’ she said. ’I was hoping upon hope he was on his way home. I was haunted by the idea he might be out there trapped or lost. But I never lost hope.’ On Tuesday, she met Avril Muller from the group, after she finished work in the early evening.

Anne admitted she felt close to the end of the search, but said: ’I had a feeling about a new farm we hadn’t searched yet. Avril and I thought we’d have a final search.’

Land owner Alan Turner gave his permission for them to look on his land.

’We found the perfect piece of tubing to push down holes and call his name. We did all the holes inthe fields. It was the seventh field, it was one we’d already been in.

’I was walking along calling him and Avril was behind me. Suddenly she heard a whimper coming from under a mound of earth.

’We found the spot and marked it with a tube, we told Alan and he ran to get a shovel, his son Mike came with us and he peered in and said: "I can see him". He dug him out with his bare hands.’

After several minutes of digging out armfuls of earth, Mike reached in up to his shoulder and grabbed Brownie and dragged him out. ’It was like the earth was giving birth to Brownie,’ she said.

Anne thought it was a polecat at first but when she realised it was Brownie was overwhelmed with shock.

’I would never have found him without Avril. She told me what to do and I’m so grateful to her and to everyone else who helped, particularly the vet Ruth Cormode from Jane Callow’s veterinary practice, and she looked him over immediately after being found.’

Brownie was dehydrated, bruised and very dirty, but basically well.

Since then Anne has been gradually reintroducing him to food, water and walks.

Anne said: ’He’s not getting out of my sight from now on!’