Two dog owners are trying to raise a £5000 reward for the return of their beloved pets after they vanished three weeks ago.
As well as the cash incentive, Ed and Georgie Bell have used sniffer dogs, night vision equipment and a mini-digger to hunt for border terriers Ruby and Beetle.
The couple, who live near Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, fear the dogs may have been stolen after they ran off during a walk.
Ruby, five, and her daughter, Beetle, two, disappeared from the Lothian Estate between Kelso and Jedburgh on December 28.
Search parties have since scoured the wooded area where they were last seen and have even used the mechanical digger to open up old badger setts and fox holes to try to find them.
A crowdfunding page to raise the reward has now been set up in a last- ditch bid to get the dogs back.
Mum-of-three Georgia, 45, said that although the dogs have run off before, they always returned quickly.
She said yesterday: “We’re desperate to get Ruby and Beetle back, they are part of our family and are really well-known in the area. By hopefully raising such a large amount we’ll be able to get them back soon.
“Whenever they’ve chased a fox or deer in the past they’ve always come back within an hour or so. They don’t really like digging which is why we don’t think they’re trapped underground.
“If they have been stolen, any national publicity should make them too hot to handle and very difficult to sell them on.”
Georgie and gamekeeper Ed have set up a Facebook page, Missing – Ruby and Beetle, which has 2700 members. They have also put up posters all around the local area in a bid to find their pets.
