A nationwide hunt is under way for five chihuahuas, including a Crufts champion, stolen after raiders smashed their way into the dogs' home.
Valenchino Chihuahua Xena, who was named Best Puppy in Breed at Crufts 2014, was snatched with four other dogs from a house in East Yorkshire on Thursday.
Owner Mal Hilton said he and his partner Lucy Hilton have been left devastated by the theft of Xena, her grandmother Angel and her mother Io, as well as two others called Pandora and Evie.
They fear the thieves will realise the dogs, worth tens of thousands of pounds, are impossible to sell and will harm them instead.
"I'm 65 years old and I haven't cried for years until now," said Mr Hilton.
"They are just like our children. We are devastated by this and we just want them back."
He described how the thieves broke into the house in the village of Lissett, near Driffield, by smashing a window with an iron bar.
"I just want someone to hand them in - to the RSPCA, to a vet, to anywhere safe. It doesn't matter. just leave them somewhere so we can get them back.
"I'm just so worried they will come to harm."
Fourteen-month old fawn longcoat Xena - whose show name is Valenchino Made of Candy - has won at many shows but her crowning glory was being named Best Puppy in Breed at Crufts last month. She has also qualified for Crufts 2015.
Humberside Police confirmed that intruders entered the house on Allison Lane between 9.30am and 4.50pm on Thursday.
Officers said they believe the thieves might have used a wicker basket to take the dogs away.
A spokesman said: "The owner of the chihuahuas is desperate to find them. These dogs need to be reunited with their owner and police are appealing for anyone who knows anything to contact them immediately so that we can have a happy ending to this story."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article