GUINEA-pig owner Fran Flint, right, feared the worst after her pet Candy vanished from her garden three weeks ago.
But little did she know the creature had been found by council workers at a rubbish dump three miles away.
And, thanks to an appeal in the Oxford Mail, the pet was reunited with her owner.
Mrs Flint, of Acre End Street, Eynsham, said: “It was great. We were really pleased to see her. I am absolutely over the moon.”
Oxfordshire County Council workers spotted the guinea-pig cowering in the corner of a landfill skip as they were closing up for the night.
Janet Witcomb, who had been running a compost workshop at the Dix Pit site at Stanton Harcourt, volunteered to care for the pet after it was found and contacted the Oxford Mail to try to trace its owner.
Mrs Flint said Candy must have crawled into a sack of garden waste while she was cleaning the hutch out.
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