A LITTLE dog from Dursley has been dubbed the luckiest dog alive after surviving for almost two days on the central reservation of the M5.

Nine-year-old Basil, the scruffy cairn/West Highland terrier cross, dodged speeding traffic for 36 hours last week.

Startled motorists kept reporting that nine-year-old Basil was wandering around on the carriageways and central reservation of the M5 near Michaelwood services.

But every time the police arrived to search for him he had disappeared.

Eventually Basil was tracked down by his owner, florist Darren Reeves.

Mr Reeves, 34, took a drive along the motorway fearing he would see his beloved pet dead but spotted him very much alive on the central reservation.

"It is absolutely incredible that he was not hit by a car or lorry," said a relieved Mr Reeves.

"He was just trotting along looking at all the traffic going by."

Wandering Basil escaped from the family home last Wednesday at about 7.30pm but at first Mr Reeves, his wife Dawn, 32, and sons Ashley, 12, Callum, 9, Harrison, 6, and Jacob, 3, were not too concerned.

"No matter what we do to keep him in the garden he always finds a way out but usually returns in a few hours," said Mr Reeves.

"But when he didn't show up we started to get a bit worried."

Mr Reeves rang Dursley police station and heard that there had been reports of a dog matching Basil's description just a few miles away on the M5.

"As soon as I knew he had been on the motorway in the early hours of Friday morning I naturally expected the worst," he said. "Quite honestly, I expected to see him flattened on the road or the hard shoulder.

"Then I suddenly saw him, as large as life, in the central reservation. He was walking along and stopping every time a large lorry went by and almost blew him over.

"The police were great. They arrived quickly and put their blue lights on to slow down the traffic - and then I got out and called to Basil.

"He heard me and ran 30 yards down the central reservation barriers until he was opposite me.

"Then he stopped and actually looked left and right before crossing the road. "The police patrolman told me I had made his day because they are so used to having to scrape dead things off the road and he was delighted that Basil had survived."