Curiosity may have killed the cat but it has also given the owners of two Oxfordshire dogs a real headache.

Canine scamp number one, Ice, is a cuddly eight-week-old boxer puppy. He found himself in a jam after trying to squeeze through a toddler's safety gate and getting his head stuck.

And Ice's plan to get ahead in life ended up with the local fire brigade having to perform one of its more unusual rescues.

Owners Pete Brettell and his girlfriend Terri Willerton had were happy enough to let the light-coloured puppy out to play in the back garden of their home in Grange Road, Banbury, on Sunday.

LBut later that afternoon, Ice was banished into the hallway because he was too muddy. But he was so keen to but his eagerness to continue playing he got his saw him get his head stuck in the safety gate which is there to protect the couple's .

Miss Willerton said the gate was for her 17-month old daughter Erica and it separated the hallway with the living room.

Terri told the Oxford Mail: "Pete wasn't here at the time and I just heard this funny noise. It was then that I realised Ice was stuck and he was trying to wriggle free.

"I tried to open the bars myself but I couldn't, so I called the fire brigade.

"Ice was fine and I just lifted him from the ground to keep him comfortable.

"I did feel a bit stupid when the fire brigade arrived and released him within seconds. I think Ice has learnt his lesson." Canine scamp number two is George.

And for anyone in Didcot who doesn't yet know, he has returned home safe and sound.

The whereabouts of the Jack Russell dog with soft brown ears and a brown patch on his left eye attracted more than usual interest in a lost dog as posters appeared in shop windows and on lamp posts across the town - not to mention the windows of Manor Primary School.

The handwritten capital letters declared: "GEORGE IS MISSING. HAVE YOU SEEN OUR JACK RUSSELL DOG?"

Along with a description of the Fenn family's Jack Russell and the message: "He is a family dog and is missed terribly!", was a n endearingsnapshot of George on each notice with Mrs Helen Fenn's two younger children Louis, ten, and Naomi, eight. Helen, 39, her older son Jonathan, 17, as well as Louis and Naomi, of Sinodun Road, were desperate to find their much-lived dog and said they covered the length and breath of Didcot with their posters during their search.

For a few days little George became the talk of the town as friends, neighbours, dog owners - and complete strangers - wondered where he was.

in the town and even neighbouring villages.

Louis's and Naomi's teacher who is also a dog lover sympathised with the children and allowed them to post their appeal notices on the Manor School classroom windows.

But all's well that ends well. FThree nights and four days after George disappeared from the back garden, he turned up - a bit thinner but none the worse for his absence - at the home of his former owner on the other side of Didcot nearly one-and-a-half miles away .

George has been the Fenn family pet for six months.

"He is a lovely, loving animal," said HelenMrs Fenn, a part-time assistant at Boots the Chemist, where even the customers were asking if George had been found.

She added: "We think he ran off from the garden, chasing after a neighbour's bitch which was in season - and got lost," said Helen. "When George was brought home, he was smelly and very hungry - he had obviously been walking the streets."

Story date: Wednesday 03 February

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