In pictures: Puppy love as kidnapped Shropshire dogs come home

The six-month old rare-breed pups, six boys and one girl, are now safely back home with their mum and overjoyed owners.

"It's all a bit overwhelming," said Katie Burton, the 26-year-old hairdresser who put out a desperate appeal on social media after her puppies were snatched from their pen in an outbuilding on Hurst Farm in Clunton, near Clun.

The alarm was raised on Wednesday when her partner Richard Jones returned to the farm where they live to feed the puppies having been out for a few hours working on another farm.

Noticing the dog shed was quiet, he found their two adult Kelpies still there but no sign of the little ones, who are still to young to be away from their mother.

Australian Kelpies are working sheep dogs and rare in Shropshire, so may fetch a hefty price – but they need to be registered with all the correct paperwork.

Devastated Katie put the word out on Facebook – a post which over the next 24 hours got shared 20,000 times.

She said it was key to getting the dogs back, against all odds.

"We had a phone call from a lady who said she had our pups in Conwy, North Wales.

"She said this guy came round and tried to sell her them for £100 each and she said no. Then he said £50 each and she said no.

"He said if she wasn't going to buy them he was going to dump them on the way home, so she said if he was going to dump them then he should just leave them there – and he did.

"She then saw our post on Facebook and got in touch through that," she said.

Richard added: "I just couldn't really believe it.

"If you'd have asked me on the day they were taken I'd have said I thought we were never going to see them again."

Police are appealing for anyone who saw anything suspicious around the Clunton farm on Wednesday or has any information about who might have taken the dogs, to contact them on 101.