A HEARTBROKEN dog owner is on a desperate hunt to find her pedigree puppy, dognapped by two men posing as her.

Sam Daverson has owned the 11-month-old Shar-Pei puppy, named KoKo, since he was eight weeks old.

She fears the two men who claimed him from a vet’s surgery plan to sell him, as the Chinese breed can fetch up to £1,000.

KoKo managed to escape, minus his collar, from Miss Daverson’s ex-boyfriend’s home last Tuesday (October 19) in Thornhill Avenue, Plumstead, but was found in the street by a woman.

She phoned Greenwich Council’s dog warden and took the puppy to a Woolwich vet, for the warden to collect.

Miss Daverson, a 21-year-old PA, from Clovelly Road, Bexleyheath, claims as the woman was taking the dog into the Roderick Henney practice in Powys Street, Woolwich, she was approached by two white men in their 20s, who got out of an old-style silver Ford Fiesta and offered to buy him.

She refused, saying she was not the owner.

Shortly after, two men of a similar description presented themselves in the surgery claiming to be KoKo’s owner.

After describing the puppy, the surgery handed KoKo to the men.

Vet Mr Henney said: “We returned the dog to someone we believed to be the owner; someone the dog clearly recognised.

“We had no reason to suspect he was anything other than the true owner.”

He said several other people had contacted the practice claiming to own the dog.

Mr Henney said: “They are claiming ownership of a dog they have never seen.

“They have no way of knowing if it was the same dog which came to the surgery and was returned.”

Miss Daverson said: “KoKo is a puppy. He will run to anyone.

“The people calling the vet have been me, my dad and my ex-boyfriend.”

She spent the weekend putting up posters in Greenwich and Bexley appealing for help to find KoKo and scouring the streets.

Miss Daverson said: “At one point I saw a dog who looked like KoKo and I kept driving backwards and forwards past them to see if it was him, but it wasn’t”

She added: “It was quiet and lonely at the weekend because I usually take him everywhere with me.

“He is like one of the family.”

Shar-Pei are fighting dogs, although Miss Daverson says KoKo has always been very affectionate and not at all aggressive.

She said: “My biggest fear is he has been stolen to use for dog fighting, and that he has now been sold to someone else.”

KoKo’s constant companion since Miss Daverson got him, has been Lady, a two-year-old bulldog.

Miss Daverson said: “She really misses him. She is not eating and she is crying and just moping around the house.”

Anyone with information can call 07581 045404.