Private drone pilot Ryan flies in to save Dame Yvonne’s runaway pet Maisie from deadly crop trap in Forest drama

A FORMER nurse from Hordle was overjoyed when an amateur drone pilot saved her dog Maisie “from certain death”, lost and trapped in a field of oilseed rape for nearly 36 hours.

Dame Yvonne Moores, the former chief nursing officer for England, Wales and Scotland, was walking her 20-month-old thoroughbred white Labrador near her home when the two-day drama began.

“Maisie was on a lead but escaped and ran off into one of the large fields of rape near our house,” she told the A&T. “I called her back but the rape was very tall so we couldn’t see her and it turned out the rape had become twisted around her lead and she was trapped right in the middle of the field.

“We would never have found her without the drone,” said Yvonne, adding: “I’m such a happy soul today.”

She praised the generosity and skills of Everton businessman Ryan Mullen (36), whose private flying and photography hobbies combined to save the day for Maisie after an appeal through a local Facebook group.

“It is a wonderful story of the enormous kindness and willingness of people to help,” Yvonne continued. ”She would have certainly died without social media, new technology and a wonderful family in Everton who had a drone.

“Even two or three years ago Maisie would have died.”

Yvonne (81), who has recently stepped down as chairman of the Florence Nightingale Foundation, said when her pet went missing friends and neighbours had rallied round and joined her and husband Brian in their search.

However the rape was too tall to see anything.

“We tried appealing for tracker dogs but nobody would let them go into the rape,” she said. “A friend suggested appealing for someone with a drone and put out a plea on the Hordle and Everton Rumour Control Facebook site. Within a couple of hours an amazing family from Everton offered to help.”

Drone hobbyist Ryan, who runs Orestone Controls, an electrical business specialising in emergency call systems at Basingstoke, said his wife Kate saw the appeal and immediately volunteered his services.

“She said I had to come home immediately, there was a lost dog crisis, so I was on my way,” he said.

Ryan said the drone flying was just a hobby. “With four children, though, I don’t get much time to practise it,” he said.

He met Yvonne in the field 36 hours after Maisie had escaped.

“The poor lady was really distraught and she was losing her voice from calling,” he said. “My daughter Ivy and I tried calling and thought we heard a faint bark and I launched the drone, but it was a huge field and from 150 metres up it just looked like a carpet. I thought ‘not a chance’, but we had to give it a go.”

In the needle-in-a-haystack challenge, Ryan made one sweep of the field but in gusting wind the drone’s batteries were running low and he had to return home to recharge them.

Yvonne said: “On the second run the drone’s camera picked up a small dot where Maisie had trampled down some of the crop and when he zoomed in there was the small white dog. It was amazing!”

Ryan continued: “We waded into the field and the crop that was shoulder-high wrapped around our legs. The poor dog was terrified and dehydrated but she was safe.

“It was such a nice outcome – so different to my usual line in providing emergency systems for people!”

Yvonne also has two rescue dogs, which came from a sanctuary run by her sister Madeline in Kefalonia.

“She passed away earlier this year and so I inherited 98 dogs,” she said. “We still have 30 to re-home.

“We have a great team of volunteers out there at Stepping Stones Sanctuary on the Greek island, and contacts in Germany, Holland and the UK, but it would be great the find homes for the others,” she said.

To contact the charity email steppingstoneskefalonia@gmail.com