THE owner of a badly injured dog rushed to the vets by a mystery Romanian man wants to thank him and everybody who helped.

Joanne Ross, of Pine Close, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, discovered her pet eight-year-old Jack Russell Barney had been hurt in a collision with a van after he escaped from her garden.

Mother-of-two Ms Ross, a receptionist at Hollow Way Medical Centre, in Cowley, said: “He is one of these little dogs who always find a way to get out, but we have no idea how he did it.”

After going out to look for Barney she found him surrounded by passers-by in Watlington Road.

A neighbour and friend of Ms Ross, Georgina Chamberlayne, had also heard of the accident and rushed to the scene.

The 77-year-old said: “I could not see Barney because there were so many people around him.

“You would have thought it was a human being lying there. Somebody had even wrapped him in a blanket and a woman had started ringing the vets.”

She said a Romanian man, known only as Gilad, took charge of the situation.

She said: “He asked me if I wanted to take Barney to the vet and so we got in his car. I had the little dog on my lap.

“When we got to the vets in Botley Road he took Barney off my lap and ran inside.”

“The man, who told me his name was Gilad, had just got back from Romania.

“He said he had been rescuing dogs and had already saved 50 in Romania.”

“I thought it was a miracle.”

Ms Ross, 50, who travelled to the vets separately, said the dog had suffered serious injuries including a brain haemorrage that had left him partially blind.

Ms Ross said: “He also has two broken toes, lots of cuts and bruises on his legs and stitches and a splint on his front leg.

“We don’t know much about the man who helped Barney as we just met him on the road but he said he had rescued lots of dogs in Romania. I just want to thank everybody who was there and helped, it was just amazing.

“I don’t think he would have survived if he hadn’t been able to get there as quick as we did.”

Barney is now back at home after spending three nights at the vet.

Were you the Romanian man, or do you know him? Call the Oxford Mail newsdesk on 01865 425444.