A FAMILY could not believe it when they were told their dog had been found wandering around Farnborough a month after she had been stolen.

Bess, an 11-year-old springer spaniel, was picked up by a police dog warden close to Farnborough College of Technology, in Boundary Road, on January 19.

Thanks to a microchip under her skin, she was traced back to her owners, Jason and Priscilla Miller, who live with their four children in Aldermaston Road, near Sherborne St John.

The former working dog from a Scottish shooting estate was taken from her kennel in the garden of the property on December 29.

Mrs Miller told The Gazette: “We are so grateful that she was microchipped, otherwise I don’t think we would have got her back. We couldn’t believe it when we got the call to say she had been found. Our children prayed for her every night but I was always hopeful that we would get her back, because she is older and has been spayed so they couldn’t get any pups out of her.”

Mrs Miller added: “It was upsetting to think there are people out there who will come on to your own property and take something that is part of your family.”

WPC Miriam Edwards, beat officer for Sherborne St John, commented: “It would have been nice if we could have got an offender as well but from the owner’s point of view, this is a good result.

“She is showing signs of her age and is a little bit stiff so the owners were quite surprised somebody would want to take her. It could be that as she was chained they assumed she was a more valuable working dog.”

She said such crimes were often opportunistic, but if dogs or livestock were out of view, it made them much less vulnerable.