Travel company owner David Giles has appealed for help to find his daughters pet rabbit after he said thieves stole the beloved animal.

Seven year old Tia came home from school with her mother Mandy on Monday and discovered her treasured mini lop-eared bunny had disappeared from his new £150 hutch and run.

She was given fluffy brown and white Willow four weeks ago as a belated present from her parents for her seventh birthday back in April.

The family have been living in temporary rented accommodation for most of the year. Back in the spring they were flooded out of their converted barn at Wittington Green, Medmenham when pipes for the underfloor heating sprang a leak and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage.

“We only got back into the barn at the end of August and the first thing we did was buy Tia the rabbit she wanted so much. We couldn't get it for her birthday in April because we weren't living in our own place, ” says David.

“She fell in love with Willow as soon as she saw him in the pet shop in Bourne End but someone else had already bought him. A week later the shop rang us and said the original buyers had pulled out and we could have him. We said it was meant to be.”

The Giles who own a travel company in Old Amersham are certain Willow didn't just hop off on a whim because he fancied a nibble of the lush grass in the meadow behind their barn.

David points out: “His run is on the patio and there was no sign that he had pushed his way out. It would have taken an adult to lift the flap on his hutch and take him.

“We think they must have climbed over a locked gate at the back to get in because they would have been seen if they had climbed the gate at the front. I think he was taken for food. Nothing else was disturbed and there weren't any footprints. My daughter is distraught.”