A Truro welder may have the answer to the mystery of a lost dog that was found hundreds of miles from home in Oxfordshire.

Darren Longar, owner of Cornwall Mobile Welding, was working on a car in St Austell in August when his client said he had two lurchers he was trying to get rid of.

The man offered him the dogs, and Darren told him he would think about it before deciding not to take them.

Yesterday, a man posted a picture on Facebook of an emaciated lurcher, saying that he had found the lost dog in Oxfordshire and taken it to a nearby vet who scanned its chip and discovered that it came from Cornwall and was named Bailey.

Darren put two and two together. He said: "I saw this picture and I said 'oh my god, I have got to go get him.'

"I feel bad because I turned him down. He's looking in a right mess. I'm angry at myself for not getting it, and at the owner."

Bailey is currently being taken care of by a dog warden in Oxfordshire. Darren says that he was ready to set off upcountry to pick him up today before the warden told him he has to wait for a week in case the owner comes forward.

He said: "I want him back down in Cornwall where he belongs instead of up there. At the end of the day the dog shouldn't have been put in that situation."

When he was working on the man's car back in August, he was told that the dogs belonged to the man's mother, and that the man was just visiting before he had to head back upcountry.

Darren has been going through his records to try and find the client's details but has not found any information identifying him yet.

He says that he recognises Bailey as the smaller of the two dogs, and that he thinks the larger dog may have already been adopted before the owner gave up trying to find Bailey a home and dumped him.

Darren said: "From the picture I have seen, now he's in very poor condition. I really hope I can go upcountry and collect him."