Ellen Smith has pleaded for the return of her cherished puppy Zeus, stolen last week. Picture: Meagan Rogers.
By Sarah Schwager
A CRANBOURNE woman is desperately seeking the return of her beloved puppy after it was stolen last week.
Ellen Smith left the house for an hour on Tuesday, 30 January, but it was enough time for someone to rip a paling off the back fence and steal the 12-week-old pup.
“I’m heartbroken,” she said.
“He was such a friendly dog. I just want him back.”
The purebred Staffordshire bull terrier named Zeus was in the yard with two other dogs – mum Deanna, 3, also a purebred Staffy, and Ben, 5, an Irish wolfhound cross – when Ms Smith left the house at 11am.
She returned about midday after picking up her 18-year-old daughter in Scoresby to find the paling broken in half and the puppy missing.
“The other dogs were both so distressed,” Ms Smith said.
“They kept running to the hole in the back fence as if they were trying to show me something.”
The Lesdon Avenue property backs onto the Lawson Poole Reserve off the South Gippsland Highway.
Ms Smith found the paling on the reserve side of the fence.
She said Deanna was very troubled and had not relaxed since the disappearance.
“If it had just been a case of someone ripping the fence off and the pup escaping, his mum would have stopped her. And he wouldn’t have left her in the first place. He’s only 12 weeks old,” Me Smith said.
She said Zeus was a distinctive-looking dog – light brindle with a scar just under his right eye near the nose and with a thin white stripe down its chest.
A purebred, the puppy is worth $500 to $600 without papers or $1200 with papers. The theft is the latest in a series of dog thefts in the area.
At about the same time on the same day, two purebred golden retrievers were stolen from a house in Delmont Court, Cranbourne.
The owner was out shopping between 11.15am and 1pm when thieves gained access to the back yard and stole the two dogs.
The dogs were valued at between $600 and $700 each.
Anyone with information about the dog thefts or who might have seen dogs matching the descriptions is asked to contact Constable Todd Warner at Cranbourne Uniform on 5991 0600 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Ms Smith said if her dog was returned no action would be taken by her against the offender.
“I just want him back. I don’t care why he was stolen,” she said.
