A FORMER police officer turned pet detective has penned a book about his experiences.

Twenty years ago, Tom Watkins heard the story of a lost dog on the radio and believed he could use the skills he acquired as a police officer with the West Midlands force to track it down.

He managed to use sightings to pin-point the dog down and lure it to safety – initiating the launch of Hereford-based Animal Search UK. It is now the largest pet rescue team in the UK.

Since then, the team has grown to more than 80,000 volunteers across the country, with Mr Watkins and his team having worked on 200,000 cases.

They have reunited thousands of pets with their owners, from dogs to tortoises, and have even helped celebrity clients including Abbey Clancy, Dawn O’Porter and Mark Cavendish.

Mr Watkins has now chronicled some of his team's experiences in his book The Real Pet Detective, unveiling the story of 20 years of missing pets, their owners and the team of expert investigators.

An extract from the book reads: "'Okay listen up everyone,' I said, zipping up my high visibility jacket. 'It will be most effective to comb the local area by taking a village each,' I told my team as I traced my finger across the map. My experience as a former copper was invaluable for our search. We weren't looking for a missing person though – we had a dog to find."

The book has been published by Viking in Hardback and eBook, costs £14.99 and is out now.