A delighted pet owner has been reunited with her pedigree puppy after it was stolen and put on sale on the internet.

Kylie Walker’s prized pug Annie, not yet one year old, had been missing for a week and four days when a north London vet suddenly called saying she had the pup.

Staff at the Zasman Vet practice, near Finsbury Park, found the animal’s microchip while performing a check-up after the �1,200 pooch was brought in by a woman, 29, who had recently purchased it for �500.

“When the vet rang I wasn’t expecting it,” said Kylie, 24, of Ellerton Road in Dagenham. “My eyes started watering and I said in a really high-pitched voice “oh really!”

She added: “When I picked her up she was really shakey. She’s been through a week-and-a-half of trauma.”

Suspicions were aroused in the woman who purchased Annie when she was rediverted by the online seller and told to collect the dog by Hackney train station.

She later questioned the lack of official vaccination papers accompanying Annie and at one point the seller became nervous and started asking for the dog back, explained Kylie, who added that her pet had been kept alongside a number of others at the seller’s home.

The beloved pet is now reunited with companion Lillie, a shitsu, and Kylie’s one-year-old son Harrison. A new fence is being put up in the back garden of the Dagenham property to prevent any future thefts.

Police have confirmed an investigation into the theft of Annie is ongoing, adding it was believed the dog had been stolen from the garden of her home and sold to a genuine buyer on Gumtree.

“I didn’t think I was ever going to get her back,” said Kylie. “But it is a happy ending. I do feel really lucky.”