THEY say a dog is a man’s best friend – but these two prove pooches themselves come a close second.

Shih Tzu Betsy was missing for nearly a week Siberian Husky Storm found her curled behind his garden bushes and saved her life.

The one-year-old ran away from Coulson Road, Loughton last Sunday while she was staying with her owner Nikki Melia’s mother, Jan Trainor.

Mrs Melia was on holiday in the Canary Islands with children, Tilly, nine and Freddie, four, when she received the dreaded call.

The 35-year-old said: “I felt physically sick and I started to cry, but I didn’t want the children to know as I thought it would ruin their holiday.

“I went up to the room. My mum hadn’t wanted to tell me, she only did because she wanted to get the word out on Facebook.

“I was devastated, really, really heartbroken.”

Thousands of people chipped in to help find the lost puppy, including Funky Dogs in Chingford, Hot Dogs Groomer Parlour, Forest Road, and stars of The Only Way is Essex tweeted for her safe return.

But as people searched day and night, nearly two miles down the road on the other side of Loughton ten-year-old Storm was barking incessantly a spot in his garden.

Owner Sandra Moulton was left perplexed when he did not stop so three days later, last Friday, son, Josh, 26, climbed the fence – where they found little Betsy.

Ms Moulton said: “When Storm kept barking it was like he was trying to sell us something, but when we checked at first we couldn’t find anything.

“When we finally found Betsy we were shocked. She was very dehydrated and scared.

“If Storm hadn’t told us, she’d probably still be there and who knows what would have happened?

“We are very proud of him. He wanted to meet her – he knew what he’d done.”

Ms Moulton had seen a post about missing Betsy on Facebook and the pup was soon reunited with Ms Trainor.

When Ms Melia, who lives with partner, Jamie, discovered the dog had been found she “wept tears of joy”.

She said: “I got the call and was so overwhelmed, I ended up telling the kids what had happened. They got the gist of it but they think she went on a fun adventure. It’s quite sweet.

“Betsy must have gone looking for us as she was also sighted near our house. She was disorientated because it was hot and she had no water.

“To be honest I have so many people to thank. My mum said thousands came out, she’d never seen anything like it.”

She has bought the dogs matching ‘best friend’ collars and hope this marks the start of a long friendship.

She added: “Betsy is very playful, she loves children and is loyal. She is like one of the kids. We are so glad we’ve got her back.”