A WEST Wiltshire family have issued a desperate appeal to find their missing family pet.

Black and white Springer Spaniel Alfie has not been seen since he vanished on Tuesday, June 8.

The Lintern family in Chapmanslade say the elderly dog has not been found despite aerial and ground searches around the village.

Jo Lintern, 49, said: “We have literally walked all the routes that we used to go with Alfie but he is nowhere to be seen. Our six-year-old Jackapoo Winnie is also missing him too.”

Mrs Lintern says the family – husband Chris and their two children, Meg, 18, and Jack, 16 – have combed the area.

“Alfie was born and bred in the village and we’ve had him since he was an 11-week-old puppy. Everybody in the village knows him.

“He just wandered off last Tuesday between 4pm and 5pm and nobody has seen him since. It is so out of character.

“He escaped through a space in the garden fence that he has never used for the past 12 years.

“I posted a message on the Chapmanslade Village Community Group and lots of people came out to look for him in the fields and in Black Dog woods.

“We’ve contacted all the local vets and dog charities, and Katie Fox, who runs a Lost Dog website at Holcombe.

“We’ve even had a drone expert, Peter Milner, of Drone SAR for lost dogs UK, doing an aerial search for him using a thermal imaging camera but he hasn’t found anything.”

Mrs Lintern added: “The response has been amazing. It has been enormously comforting to know that he has not collapsed somewhere.”

She is hoping that by sharing the ‘missing’ appeal on social media and by spreading the word around Wiltshire that Alfie will eventually be found.

Mrs Lintern says the 13-year-old dog is not in the best of condition, having had four operations to repair a stick injury that penetrated his spine, and having suffered a tumour on his front right paw.

“He is not in good repair, bless him, but he is a much-loved family pet and we would love to see him returned safe and sound.”

Anyone who knows where Alfie is, or sees him, should contact Katie Fox on 07947 360897. She is co-ordinating the search and rescue effort.