AN £800 pedigree pooch that was feared stolen has been reunited with its joyful owners thanks to a Daily Echo appeal for information.

Mystery still surrounds the strange disappearance of the Afghan hound - and what happened to the dog in the weeks it was missing.

Two-year-old Kofie vanished from Southampton Common more than two weeks ago when owner Gail Jones took it for a walk.

Gail and husband Andrew, of Burgess Road, Southampton, feared the worst after tracing witnesses who said they'd spotted the animal walking with a man in Shirley.

The couple were sure Kofie had been stolen for breeding - or to sell on the pedigree pooch blackmarket.

The family's emotional appeal for the return of their pet, printed by the Daily Echo, led to a mysterious phone call from a Southampton vet who said he'd treated a dog matching the description. The vet passed on the phone number of a woman in Eastleigh, the Joneses went round there - and amazingly discovered missing Kofie.

"The woman told us she'd been given the dog,'' said Andrew. "A friend of a friend had found it in a bedsit in Shirley, but the person who was looking after it had to go abroad. So they were looking for someone to take care of the dog, and found this woman.

"We still really don't know what happened to the dog, and I suppose we never will. But it was all handled very nicely and Kofie is healthy and in good condition - and that's the main thing.''

The sudden disappearance of Kofie triggered growing fears that a dognapping gang was touring the city. A spokesman from Doglost, an Internet database of missing pets, had said that dognapping was "escalating out of control''.