BEAMING four-year-old Ellie Roberts-Day welcomed her beloved dog Ruby home three months after she went missing.

The King Charles spaniel vanished from a friend’s neighbour’s garden in Great Haseley, near Thame, on November 29.

Despite posters offering a £200 reward for her safe return and endless searches within a 10-mile radius , the only response the family had was from a suspected crook who tried to dupe them out of the reward.

But Ruby was finally discovered about 50 miles away by police officers on patrol in Bedfordshire on Sunday.

Police said that Ruby had run from a travellers’ site near Bedford when two officers spotted her on a busy road.

They took her to the vets who checked for a chip and realised she had been reported stolen.

Ellie’s mum Caroline Day, a 38-year-old gymnastics coach from Little Milton, near Thame, said: “I can’t believe we are so lucky.

“She’s got a couple of infections and she’s quite overweight and stressed because she’s been living under a caravan.

“Ellie is just ecstatic. We are going to have another Christmas Day now. We kept all Ruby’s presents, so Ellie’s really happy.

Bedfordshire police said no one had been arrested or charged in connection with Ruby’s disappearance and no further inquiries would be made.