Jolly, the puppy mascot of the Guys and Dolls singing group, is safely home again – thanks to the prompt action of a Bushey woman.

The parents of group singer Martine Howard were looking after the five-month-old black and tan puppy at their Bushey home whie the group was on tour.

But on Sunday afternoon Jolly and an Alsatian belonging to another of the Howards daughters wandered off from the garden.

The pair were seen in Melbourne Road and Catsey Lane, before the Alsatian, Minnie, was injured in a road accident in Bushey High Street. Jolly was seen there too – but disappeared.

Police searched in vain for the missing mascot but 24 hours later Mrs Lila Jovanovic came to the rescue.

“My neighbour asked me to help because her elderley mother had been followed home from the shops by a dog," she said.

Mrs Jovanovic, of Falconer Road, managed to catch Jolly but was mystified by the name on her collar. “I didn’t know who Guys and Dolls were, but my daughter soon put me right,” she said.

[From the Watford Observer of January 9, 1976]

NOSTALGIA NOTE: Guys and Dolls had a huge hit in 1975 with There’s a Whole Lot of Loving followed the next year by a top 10 cover of You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, more famously sung by Dusty Springfield. At the time, the three girls and three boys in the band included David Van Day and Thereza Bazar, who went on to have hits as Dollar, and Sir Bruce Forsyth’s daughter Julie.