A four-year-old girl has been reunited with her dog and ‘best friend’ after he was stolen from his home in Chalfont St Giles.

Stevie Hogan arrived at her house in Narcot Road on October 6 to find broken glass on her front step, the doors wide open and Brian the beagle nowhere to be seen.

Feeling unsafe at the property, she and her partner Harry stayed in a hotel with Harry’s daughter LG*, 4, who they hoped wouldn’t notice her best friend was missing.

“Our first feelings were definitely shock. After the police had left came the sadness and the heart break, neither of us slept for 48 hours, we felt guilty to even eat or sleep whilst Brian was out there.”

As LG’s other best canine friend, her grandmother’s dog, had just passed away, Stevie couldn’t bare to tell her step-daughter she might never see Brian again.

“It would have broken her, and had a knock-on effect of breaking us even harder.”

She told LG that Brian was at a doggy spa for the weekend, but that didn’t stop LG asking why they weren’t with Brian ‘every five minutes’.

Read more: Heroic bus driver saves escaped dog from the fast lane of the M40

Three days later, Brian – who Stevie called an escape artists – was found wondering Luton, for reasons still a mystery to her and police.

“When I got that call I broke down in tears, so much so it made the vet on the other side of the phone cry too.”

She took him to see everyone and then to "somewhere safe, as home does not feel like that yet" to spend the day having cuddles.

Read more: Dog stolen from Narcot Road in Chalfont St Giles

“Everyone’s reaction to him from family, to friends to neighbours were pure tears of joys. It really is the best feeling in the world to have him back with us.”

A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said an investigation is ongoing.

“Anyone with information can contact police by calling 101 or making a report online quoting reference number 43210451008,” they said.

*Stevie requested her step-daughter be referred to by the acronym LG.