LORRAINE Allen who owns a pet shop in Tenbury hopes to help give broken-hearted dog-owners the best possible Christmas present ever.

Since launching an appeal, she has been inundated by owners looking for help to find missing dogs.

Lorraine, who has owned Bonnie’s Pet Supplies in Tenbury for two years. has also had a pet-shop in Bromyard as part of a family business in Bromyard for more than 30.

The plight of spaniel Max from the area got her thinking how she might be able to help.

In four weeks, nearly 100 owners from all over the country have contacted her with heart-wrenching stories about missing dogs.

She now has more than 91 photographs of missing pets in both of her shops and also on social media.

Max went missing on Christmas Day last year and, despite doing everything possible to try to find him, so far there is no news.

“If I can help a broken-hearted dog-owner to be reunited with their missing pet and give them the best Christmas present ever then this would be wonderful,” said Lorraine.

Lorraine says that the stories behind the dogs that go missing can be very different but the common thread is one of grief and sadness.

“To lose any dog when it dies is awful but in some ways having a much-loved pet go missing is even worse because of the not knowing what has happened.

“I hope that what I am doing will help to raise awareness.

“Some of the dogs that go missing have been microchipped but the chips do not always work and so some pets may end up being rehomed by rescue centres because there is no way of tracing their owners.

“In other cases, dogs go missing because they escape from gardens but some dogs are stolen because they are taken from secure compounds.

“Other run off when they are being taken for a walk, in some cases frightened by things like fireworks.”

Lorraine said that dogs that go missing tend to be of all ages, shapes and sizes and she fears that some are stolen by people engaged in activities such as dog fighting.

There is some general advice to reducing the risk of losing a pet including having the dog microchipped, which is a legal requirement, and checking regularly that the chip is working either at the vet's or a pet shop where the service is offered.

A dog should also have a collar with an identity tag and contact details but not the name of the animal.

“Never leave a dog tied up outside a shop and also do not automatically assume that a dog cannot find its way out of a ‘secure’ garden or that people who want to steal the animal have not been watching,” she added.

Her advice to people who have a dog that has gone missing is to get the message out as widely and a quickly as possible including posting photographs.

“The longer a dog is missing, the less chance of it being found so acting quickly is essential,” added Lorraine.