A DOG has been reunited with her owners in Wotton under Edge after being missing for four years.

Cocker spaniel Edith was stolen from outside her home in Wotton on March 22, 2018, when she was seven months old.

"It was devastating and unbearable when we realised what had happened to her," said her owner Emma Hall.

"We didn't know if she was alive, if she was hurt, or if she was being treated well."

After Edith's disappearance, Emma and her husband Andy highlighted her theft on social media and kept hoping for news of her.

"But to be honest after about six months to a year, we thought we’d never see her again," said Emma.

However, one day, completely out of the blue, they got a call from a vet to say Edith had been found, 70 miles away in Somerset.

A woman had spotted Edith wandering on her own on the outskirts of Yeovil and had taken her to a vet where her microchip was scanned.

"It was a shock - a really lovely shock - to get that call," said Emma.

"There were lots of tears, we were over the moon."

Edith was reunited with the family on March 22.

This was exactly four years to the day after she went missing.

Emma said: "We don't know what she's been through.

"But she's come home a very loving and very friendly dog - she's not shy and frightened, and doesn't seem too traumatised.

"We're very lucky."

Pet theft was made a criminal offence in September 2021.

The new law will "recognise the welfare of animals and that pets are valued as more than property", according to the government website.

Pet microchip databases were also made more accessible under the new law, making it easier to reunite stolen pets with their owners.