Somerset owner left heartbroken by suspected dog theft

Marika Mossman has been searching for Scott since he went missing in September

A woman said she was enduring her "worst nightmare" after her beloved dog suddenly disappeared three months ago.

Marika Mossman's nine-year-old black sprocker spaniel Scott vanished within a short distance of her home in West Bagborough, Somerset, on 23 September.

The 27-year-old personal trainer said he knew the area "really, really well" and is convinced he has been stolen.

She said: "It's my absolute worst nightmare. It's a family member and you don't know what's happened to them.

"You are coming up with a million different scenarios of what has happened.

'No closure'

"With an older dog you'd think you would get some sort of closure with them passing and I've had nothing.

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"I've gone to work one morning and I've come home and my dog has gone.

"I've had no closure, I've had absolutely nothing."

Miss Mossman adopted Scott when he was 18 months old.

He needing rehoming when he failed to pass tests to become a military dog.

She said Scott had only failed on "minor things" and was well trained.

Scott the sprocker spaniel is like family to Marika Mossman

Scott had been out walking with Miss Mossman's mother when he went "round the corner after a pheasant and he just never came back".

Her mother looked for the dog but said she was unable to find any trace of him.

It happened within a few hundred metres from his home in an area that the dog knows "very, very well", she explained.

Immediately after he disappeared they spent "all that evening into the early hours searching" for him.

Since then Miss Mossman has launched numerous search parties involving up to 300 people and has "thoroughly searched" every hedge, river and ditch within a several mile radius of where he went missing.

She even convinced a Sea King military helicopter team to help with the search.

Marika Mossman is offering a "substantial" reward for Scott's safe return

There have been no sightings of Scott, leading her to believe that "he had to have been picked up in that area".

She said the price of spaniel puppies had risen dramatically during lockdown and might have made Scott a target for thieves.

Miss Mossman said she was offering a "substantial" reward for Scott's safe return.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said Scott's disappearance had been "reported as a theft" and appealed for anyone with information about his whereabouts to get in touch.