A PUPPY survived by stealing turkey eggs after playing hide and seek in a barn.

The Murray family searched the village of Hamsterley, County Durham, and issued an appeal in The Northern Echo for the safe return of the five-month-old Great Dane puppy, called Baby.

But while they scoured the countryside for Baby, she was living 100 yards away.

Mother-of-two Glenna Murray said she and her family travelled to Lincolnshire to buy the puppy, but she escaped when they pulled on to the drive at their farm.

After her neighbour read of the family's plight in The Northern Echo, she realised she had seen the dog near the family's home.

Mrs Murray said: "We looked everywhere, when all along she was only 100 yards away. She had managed to sleep between two bales of hay in the barn and had survived by stealing turkey eggs."

Baby's adventure came to an end when her former owner travelled from Lincolnshire to catch her.

Mrs Murray said: "She brought one of the litter that Baby had been living with and that helped us catch her."

The puppy has now settled into the household with Mrs Murray and husband Peter, their two children, Cecily and Alexander, two Great Dane dogs and a labrador called Dave.