A beloved dog has been reunited with her owner after four months missing – but mystery surrounds her time away from home.

One-year-old cocker spaniel Penny disappeared in December after slipping her collar while on a walk in Canterbury.

As the weeks passed without any news, and despite widespread appeals, hope faded that she would ever return home safely.

But on Thursday she was spotted in a country lane four miles away, with an emotional video showing the moment she was handed back to owner Kathleen Green.

“It was amazing when we got her back,” Miss Green, 21, said.

“When she saw me she was shaking – it was a beautiful moment.”

While delighted to have her home, Miss Green says questions remain about where Penny has been – or indeed who she has been with.

The bedraggled dog had lost weight, was ridden with fleas and, curiously, was wearing two collars when she was found.

“When she went missing she slipped her collar, so they weren’t ours,” Miss Green said.

“Penny is also a long-haired cocker spaniel and if I don’t brush her a couple of times a day then she gets really matted, but when we got her back she had been brushed, so she had definitely been taken by someone.

“She smelt like poo and was crawling with fleas, too. She was also really underweight. I think she was less than four kilos, but she’s so happy to be home now.”

Penny was being walked by Miss Green’s mother in a field behind Tennyson Avenue in Canterbury when she ran off on December 13.

She was found last week four miles away, walking along Maypole Road, near Hoath, by a man who recognised her from a social media appeal shared by Facebook page Muddy Paws Crime.

He alerted those who run the site, who in turn contacted Miss Green to say Penny had potentially been found.

Miss Green, who was having a dialysis session at the time, recalled: “I looked at my phone and they’d sent a picture and asked me if it was Penny.

“It genuinely was her and I then started having a panic attack. I was going absolutely mad.”

After receiving confirmation the dog was Penny, the man who found her picked her up and met Miss Green at McDonald’s in Sturry Road.

“It was so odd - she was just four miles away from my flat,” Miss Green added.

“It was so heartbreaking when she went missing. It was like a piece of me was ripped away.

“I couldn’t do anything for about a month. I literally went into depression, I was just lying in bed.

“I also lost two stone over it too. It was a really bad time.”

Lisa Loops, from Muddy Paws Crime, says Penny’s return is validation for the work it does.

“We’ve had it said to us that we do too many posts for the owners but I don’t think we do. It’s all about different eyes at different times,” she said.

“The video when they were reunited is so emotional.

“We were over the moon. When a dog gets reunited it gives other owners hope.”