Twitter helped reunite an owner with her dog -- who had left home and hopped a train in Ireland. After Deirdre Anglin realized her pup Patch had gone missing, she did “the usual social network thing,’’ and posted pictures of him on her Facebook account, asking for her friends to keep an eye out for him.
 
Little did she know that Patch hopped on a morning commuter train -- and the conductors had the same idea. After noticing the Jack Russell terrier, Irish Rail sent out a "Lost dog!" tweet with a photo of Patch -- who they internally dubbed Checker, joking that he could be trained to inspect tickets on the rail.
 
After more than 500 retweets in 32 minutes, Anglin caught sight of the message and wrote back,  “That’s my dog!’’
 
The train staff noted that Patch was a great addition to the commute as passengers took turns petting him. They eventually took him off at the train's final stop where he was soon reunited with Anglin.
 
Irish Rail spokesman Barry Kenny said, “It was good she showed up so quickly, because the staff in the office were getting quite attached to him!"


The retweeted picture of Patch: