Help us track ferret thieves

Partners Bud and Stella were taken from their hutch in the early hours of last Wednesday, with Stella found almost a mile away on Argyle Crescent later the same day.

However Bud is still missing and Craig Morrison, wife Liza and their three children - Casey, 12, and twins Mac and Millie, eight - are desperate to find him.

Mrs Morrison, 42, said whoever took the ferrets must have jumped over the six-feet-tall gate into the garden. She believes Bud and Stella were later dumped.

Mr Morrison, 44, a joiner, said the theft of the ferrets had put a dampener on his children's Easter holidays.

He added: "I heard our dogs barking at about 2am so I got up and looked out the window. I could see three guys in their early 20s laughing and joking in the street but I never thought anything more of it.

"I came downstairs, had a coffee and went out the back. All the compartments of the hutch were open and the back gates to the garden were wide open. The ferrets were gone.

"The kids were absolutely devastated, they have been running around putting posters up."

Stella was rescued by a local resident just as she was being cornered by a cat, and was taken to Abercorn Veterinary Clinic. She had a cut nose.

A member of staff at the clinic had spotted one of the many posters that Casey, Mac and Millie have displayed in the area and contacted them.

Mrs Morrison, of Joppa Road, said: "The kids were absolutely delighted to get Stella back. It's horrible to think that Bud's out there on his own and that somebody could be so callous.

"We would love to have him back.

"I think whoever took them are horrible people. They are disgusting.

"The kids were terrified knowing that somebody had been in the back garden. It's horrible to think that somebody has been on your property."

Casey, Mac and Millie have been searching the streets on their bikes, as well as putting up around 30 "missing" posters in Portobello. Mr Morrison said: "Stella is the one who if you're not gentle with, will bite you. She's probably nipped whoever took her and they've put her down.

"The fact that they have just put Stella down is more or less a death sentence - it's not as if ferrets have got any road sense or anything like that."

A ferret matching Bud's description was spotted on the embankment next to the railway line in Portobello last week, but the family have yet to find him.

Mrs Morrison said: "That's been a week now. I don't know what's happened to Bud - I just hope we get him back."