A DOG is back safely with her family after falling down a well.

Labradoodle Lily had to be rescued by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service after going missing a forest near Eastleigh on Saturday evening.

Owner Sarah Strother, 37, was preparing for a work night out when she heard the news that Lily had gone missing in woods near Chestnut Avenue, Eastleigh.

"I'd had that sixth sense that day. I just thought 'she's missing'," said the mum-of-three, of Peverells Wood Avenue, Chandler's Ford. "It's really odd."

The nurse searched the park for two hours while her tearful son Henri waited in the car. She returned at 2am in her party outfit to try again but gave in when her high heels sank in the mud.

Sarah's father, Richard, went back out yesterday morning and heard whimpering from the well.

Discovering Lily two metres below ground, he called Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, who deployed animal rescue specialist Anton Phillips.

An extendable pole was lowered down a noose carefully looped around Lily's shoulders, before she was pulled to the surface and reunited with her grateful owners.

Mr Phillips said she was "a lucky dog" after landing on a log, avoiding injury from falling further.

He added: "The extendable tools we now have thankfully meant I could get her out relatively easily on my own.

"But there is a lot of emotion involved in rescues like this for the owners, often as much as any house fire. It's important they call specialists like us to deal with them, rather than try to carry out the rescue themselves and create an even bigger problem."

Now Lily is in good health and playing with Elliott, aged nine, Henri, 10, and sister Thea, 15.

Sarah said: "We're really grateful. It was a really quick response, they reassured us and we wouldn't have been able to get her out without them."

It's not the first time Lily's got into a sticky situation whilst out on a walk, having twisted her ear in a thistle two years ago.

Sarah added: "She squealed like a pig. Let's hope there's no more dramas now."