A WOMAN has been reunited with her pet dog eight months after it was snatched from her back garden.

Kim Hodgson says she is overjoyed to have Blue, a distinctive Weimaraner puppy, back home in Meopham, near Gravesend, after the animal was stolen last October.

The 16-month-old bitch was found being chased by other dogs more than 15 miles away in Thamesmead, Bexley.

Blue, almost unrecognisable, had suffered extreme weight loss and was covered in cuts and sores when she was picked up by the PDSA.

Miss Hodgson collapsed in tears when she received the call she had been waiting for.

She was told that Blue had been scanned and identified by her £10 microchip.

Miss Hodgson, said: “I never once, not even for a day, gave up the search for Blue. When I was not at work I was out and about putting up posters and handing out leaflets at any event I could attend.”

Dognapping is thought to be one of the fastest growing crimes in the country. Miss Missa Hodgson was sent text messages demanding £2,000 for the safe return of her missing puppy.

She said: “Even in the darkest days when I was receiving a series of cruel text messages telling me Blue would be killed if I did not pay up, I still never gave up.”

Blue’s appeal posted on www.doglost.co.uk was viewed more than 18,000 times and more than 500 comments were posted.

Miss Hodgson added: “The posters kept up awareness about Blue but it was a tiny piece of technology which ended my nightmare.”