A DISTRAUGHT family is desperate to be reunited with their beloved dog Max who went missing on Christmas Day.

The only present his family now wants is to be reunited with the eight-year-old neutered male English springer spaniel after he wandered off near Bromyard.

Max has a docked tail, was wearing a chain collar with a round ID tag with the family surname (Lambert) and mobile number on it.

He is also microchipped. Max is mainly brown on his head and white on his body with patches of brown.

His distinguishing feature is a lump on his lower eyelid.

On Christmas morning at 10.30am Max wandered off from the HR7 Stoke Lacy area of Herefordshire, near Bromyard.

Amanda Lambert said: "Now it is day number six and we have combed the area looking through the hedges and fencing thinking he may be caught up as he was wearing a chain collar, searching further afield each day, stopping everyone we see to ask for their help but nothing, not one sighting.

"We had hoped that after the 'festive season' if anyone had found him they would hand him in once the vets and pounds were open again, but again nothing.

"Our boy wouldn't run off, he is a valuable member of our family and knows he is well loved and very much spoilt.

"We can't accept that he has just disappeared without a trace and have even tried contacting dog trackers but there are none that operate in this area. Everywhere we turn, there is no answers or even any clues.

"Please if you live locally, walk all the outskirts of fields, woodlands and look for our gorgeous gentleman as there is a distraught family feeling like we have let him down by not finding him.

"Whatever has happened to him, we just want to know where he is and that he is safe or have closure on this horrible turn of events.

"We haven't celebrated at all in the last week and life will never been the same without our little man, our two-year old daughter thinks he is out chasing rabbits and keeps asking us to go get him and bring him home as he is her best friend and she misses him, it's breaking our hearts."

Amanda Lambert can be contacted on 0755 442 9575.