POLICE rescued two dogs and a puppy which were left to eat snow and tree bark after being abandoned on a freezing narrowboat in Jericho.

Neighbours alerted police after hearing continuous barking from the boat for days. They were worried the owner may have had an accident inside.

But when Pc Katie Ward investigated the boat moored in Mill Stream at 8am yesterday, she found border collies Cara and Felix and their three-month-old puppy wandering around the riverbank having climbed out of an open window.

Pc Ward said: “I was told they have been on their own for up to five days, at least since the snow has been here. We do not know where the owner is.

“There is a window where they can get in and out, but no food out for them. They were shivering with cold, and the puppy is very thin.

“They were eating snow and bits of tree when I was with them.”

The dogs, who were identified by neighbours, were taken to St Aldate’s Police Station, where RSCPA officers collected them yesterday. Pc Ward said police were trying to trace the owner.

lsloan@oxfordmail.co.uk