Lost dogs reunite with owners after smelling their favorite food

A pair of lost dogs in the United Kingdom found their way back to their family after their owners decided as a last ditch effort to cook their favorite food — sausages — near the location where they were last seen.

Liz and Graham Hampson were devastated when their son called two weeks ago to tell them that their two miniature schnauzers, Charlie and Theo, had become lost in a thick fog during a walk in the hills of Cumbria, England. The couple launched a rescue campaign for the father-and-son canine duo, contacting mountain rescue teams and recruiting friends and family to help search the hills.

More than 120 people and two drones showed up to search for the dogs, and the couple even camped out in the hills overnight calling the dogs' names. But after 96 hours of searching with no results, things started to look grim.

According to the Telegraph, one of the volunteers suggested putting a grill near the location they were searching and cooking food that the dogs would smell.

"One of our friends had the intuition to work out roughly where they would be and we started the barbecue there. It's like the ending of a film that it worked," Liz Hampson said. "They absolutely love sausages. They have them every Sunday for breakfast, so if there was one food they were going to come back for, it was sausages."

Shortly after the couple cooked the sausages on the grill, the dogs showed up and were reunited with their owners — and the sausage.

The Hampsons joked that the two went on a Father's Day weekend trip together.

"And they've told us nothing about what happened," Liz said. “I guess what goes on tour, stays on tour."