Shaun McDermott's beloved chihuahua David has gone missing - yet again.

David, a long-haired golden blond chihuahua, went AWOL from a friend's house in Petone in 2010. He was eventually found being looked after by a family nearly a kilometre from the address he disappeared from.

Four years earlier, Shaun, David and his other chihuahua Honey hit national headlines when the two dogs were stolen from the family's van. With all the publicity, the thief's conscience was pricked and the little dogs were returned.

Honey later had to be put down after an accident.

Now David is missing again - believed to be somewhere in Wainuiomata.

Shaun, 38, who has an intellectual disability, has been "inconsolable" since the 8-year-old dog walked off from outside the family home in Upper Hutt in March.

Shaun's father Bruce McDermott says the dog was put on the ground while the front door was being unlocked. Shaun went inside thinking the dog had gone with his father in the car to run an errand; Bruce thought the chihuahua had gone inside with Shaun.

Shaun got the dog shortly after the death of his mother and it had become his "best mate", Bruce says.

Bruce is suspicious about circumstances following the dog's disappearance. It transpired a man who lives down the street from the McDermotts found the chihuahua and gave it to a friend who lives in Wainuiomata.

The man claimed the dog had no collar. Bruce says David was wearing a red leather collar with a yellow bell and Upper Hutt registration tag.

The man told police he took the dog to Wainuiomata more than a week after it appeared on his property, as he couldn't keep it. But Bruce says he's been told by another person it was taken to Wainuiomata the day it disappeared, and that the man believed a person with an intellectual disability should not own a dog.

Constable Hayden Bonny told Hutt News last week police have investigated. There was insufficient evidence of any wrong- doing to consider a charge of any sort.

"All we can say is that the dog appears to have gone missing [from the friend's place] in Wainuiomata."

Bruce says his son would be over the moon to get any news of his beloved canine companion. Contact Bruce McDermott on 528 9706 or 021 177 1264.

- Hutt News

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