Dog owners who faced a harrowing 24 hours when their beloved pooch went missing on Wimbledon Common have praised strangers for rescuing him from the A3.

Fourteen-year-old Miika, a German Shepherd and Labrador cross, was on a lunchtime stroll with his dog walker on Tuesday when something spooked him and he ran off.

Owners Agata Boczkowska-Young, 35 and Will Young, 33, were both at work when they received the dreaded phone call.

The couple, who adopted Miika from Canada six years ago, rushed back to Wimbledon to search for him, alerting the rangers and nearby hospitals and vets.

Mrs Boczkowska-Young said: "It was the worst 24 hours of my life - I was so devastated.

"When we adopted him in Canada he was on the list to be put down.

"He's the most important thing for us really because we don't have kids and the whole family love him.

"He gets scared quite easily because we adopted him when he was eight and he had some trauma in his life.

"We think it was just a series of circumstances which made him get lost on the common."

The couple, who live in Earlsfield, searched the common until midnight while their dog walker put up posters around Wimbledon.

They returned the next morning with more posters and asked the police, rangers and dog walkers if they had seen Miika.

Then they got a call from the Wimbledon Common Ranger's Office saying a dog owner had found a lost dog on the A3.

Wimbledon Times:

Rescued: A tired Miika after he was picked up on the A3

Mrs Boczkowska-Young said: "Our dog walker was driving around when she suddenly saw this guy who found him so she drove back and got him.

"Cars were slowing down and some cars were trying to shepherd him but he was petrified and this random dog walker drove ahead and stopped.

"Because his boot was full of dogs Miika must have felt safe to jump in and the man called the warden."

Miika was tired and hungry but uninjured when he was rescued.

Mrs Boczkowska-Young said: "The fact that he hasn't been hit by a car I know there was a lot of luck but I just didn't expect that and we are just so happy that people were that kind and it was lovely to see all the solidarity with the dog walkers getting involved and looking after him.

"We don't blame our dog walker at all and she will continue walking our dog. It was a series of really bad circumstances. It's an amazing story that he survived this.

"My husband says he's the most resilient dog he's ever met."