Lost and hound!

Josh Warwick

IT must be puppy love!

A treasured pet pooch is today back in the arms of her fraught owner only days after the young hound was stolen in a burglary.

Eight-and-a-half month-old Trixi showered David George with sloppy licks at Ipswich police station after detectives reunited the pair.

Builder Mr George was left feeling as sick as a dog when he returned home on Tuesday to discover his prized pedigree Staffordshire bull terrier was missing.

The 22-year-old said he feared the worst when he realised Trixi was gone.

He said: “I had been to my mum's for dinner and so I came home a bit later than usual.

“Usually, she's in the kitchen, but she wasn't there. I searched the flat but she was nowhere to be seen.

“I was going mad at that stage.

“I rang everyone I could think of who I thought may be able to help - dog wardens, the police and the RSPCA. I was really panicking.

“I just wanted to know she was ok.

“At first I didn't think I would ever see her again.”

However, cops tracked down Trixi on Friday, and soon after David was playing with the pretty pooch - who was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed despite her ordeal.

Mr George added: “I have known her since the day after she was born, and owned her from seven weeks.

“It's great to have her back.”

Detective constables Ben Hudson and Stuart Colbear led the investigation.

Dc Hudson said: “Very rarely do we have dogs stolen in Suffolk.

“Trixi is probably worth about £300.

“Dogs are not the sort of item you can get rid of very easily.”

- One person has been arrested in relation to the burglary and has been questioned by police.

- Have you got a tale to tell about your prized pooch? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

- In Northern Ireland, hundreds of domestic animals have been stolen in recent years. Animals as diverse as birds, donkeys, reptiles, poultry and even rodents have been reported stolen to the police.

- In October 1989, $10,000 of frozen bull semen and embryos was taken from the dairy building at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, California. The embryos were later found, but despite a $1,500 reward, the semen was never recovered.

- Burglars in Hong Kong stole $250,000 worth of birds' nests from a restaurant during the night of May 1, 1992. The nests are a main ingredient in a popular Chinese soup.

- In celebration of the 2001 athletics world championships, the host city of Edmonton, Canada, erected statues of bison, painted in colours representing the competing nations. Twenty of the statues were vandalised, with thieves removing the testicles from the bison. Ric Dolphin, chairman of the project that erected the statues, suggested that if the vandals were caught, the punishment should fit the crime.