A DESPERATE UK-wide search has been launched for a five-month-old puppy believed to have been stolen from his heartbroken owner.

More than 1,000 people all over Britain – including TV presenter Lorraine Kelly – have now joined the hunt for Terry, a border terrier who it is feared was taken from Rosie O’Connor's car on September 26.

Grief-stricken Rosie, 26, and her fiancée Jake, 28, from Swindon have offered a large reward for his return. But there have been no sightings.To make matters even worse, Rosie has been abused by vile trolls who have said that they will maim the pup.

Terry went missing between 1 and 1.30pm after Rosie and Jake drove to Kingscote, near Tetbury, to look at a wedding reception venue. They left Terry in the locked car, which was parked under a tree for shade, with water and with the rear windows slightly down so that he could have plenty of air.

But when they returned to the car Terry had disappeared. The couple checked the windows but the gap was too narrow for him to have squeezed through.

“We looked everywhere for him for two hours,” said a distressed Rosie. “We walked all over the estate and the house, we searched the undergrowth, ditches, everywhere. I went back and forth to the centre for days, spending up to 20 hours a day looking. I even lit barbecues in the hope that the smell might entice him if he was near.”

The couple then discovered that a silver Transit van driven by two dark-haired young men with East European accents had been driving around the village at around same time. They approached another couple with their dog and said, “that’s a really good-looking dog you’ve got there.”

Rosie now believes that her puppy has been taken. “I am so distraught,” she said, “It is horrendous, I cannot describe the pain that I am in.”

She has launched a Facebook appeal and has had 2,000 lost dog posters distributed all over Britain, in the hope someone will spot the puppy, who has a white chin and a kink in his tail.

She said: “What has made all of this even worse is that I have received copious calls of bullying and abuse from people pretending they have got him. One said if I don’t give them money they would chop off his limbs and send them to me in the post. Others have called in the middle of the night, girls making dog noises down the phone and people saying that I deserve to lose my dog and they hope he was stolen.

“I will always regret what I did, leaving the window open a little, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. People can say whatever they like but it is just killing me wondering what he is going through. I just want him to be at home, warm and with people who love him. He could be being kept in a cage or being beaten and left outside, frightened in the cold and rain. I can’t thank people enough for trying to help me find him.”

If you see Terry or know where he is, phone the police on 101.