A DOG lover has spent nearly all her money looking for her missing chihuahua, having quit her job - and will now lose her house.
Mellie Clements says the only thing that matters is finding dog Piglet, and has been living in her car for over two months as she continues the search.
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The 54-year-old was staying on a friend's canal boat in Harefield, near Uxbridge, West London, for a couple of days from March 28 when there was a break in.
It is not clear if three-year-old Piglet fled during the raid around Coppermill Lane lock or was stolen, however Mellie said a few days later he was sighted at a lock further down the canal.
Desperate to find her dog, she has walked up and down the towpaths and travelled to surrounding areas to hand out missing posters every day since.
She also initially slept in the woods near where the boat was moored, hoping her dog would be living wild and come find her.
Mellie estimates she's walked 100 miles.
"I’m happy to walk a million miles if I have to," she told The Sun.
The first three days were the most relentless.
She said: "I didn't stop walking, and it was hailstones, wind, trees were falling down, pouring down with rain.
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"I didn’t even know the area, it was pitch black. I was wandering everywhere, and have done every day since."
As the weeks and months have rolled on, Mellie has begun sleeping in her old Volvo car and occasionally stays in hotels paid for by kindhearted strangers.
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She refuses to go back home - some 130 miles away in Belper, Derbyshire - until Piglet is retrieved.
And has not been to her job as a cook, or her secondary role as a cleaner, meaning she has no money coming in.
Her landlord has agreed to allow her to leave her belongings in the house until the end of the month but after that she will be homeless.
But for Mellie, none of this matters.
She said: "He’s all I’ve got. I’ve got no next of kin, no kids.
"I live in the Derbyshire Dales, I’ve only got my work colleagues there, I’ve got no friends there.
"He’s my life, I choose to be with dogs rather than people. People have done me wrong in the past."
Mellie has set up multiple Facebook groups in her bid to find Piglet, and has been in contact with lost dog organisations.
In fact, she's posted so much on the social media platform she is currently banned for seven days for 'spamming'.
Someone involved in the campaign received an anonymous tip off claiming the dog had been picked up in the first couple of weeks after he disappeared, and that he's okay.
However, they didn't reveal where he was.
"Before the tip off I was sleeping in the woods, thinking he was in survival mode," explained Mellie.
"I was walking the towpaths all night but then since the tip off I’ve just been trying to get his face in every household. Someone might not even know I’m looking for him.
"Someone could have found him unscrupulously and sold him on because there are people like that in this area.
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"I want to tell everybody and shout it from the rooftops. But it gets me so upset."
Mellie was living in a top floor flat when she first adopted Piglet - who cost around £1,800 - and spent a year looking for a pet friendly home with a garden.
"I couldn’t get anywhere. I couldn’t find anyone pet friendly," she explained.
"I eventually found this lady and she reduced the rent just for me. Piglet had his own little garden. I can’t go back there without him.
"I can’t afford to be there now anyway, I can’t pay the rent, I’ve got to the end of the month - my belongings are still there, I haven’t got much, to get them out. I’m homeless now, really."
She continued: "Everything is about Piglet, my whole life. My job and my life, everything for Piglet.
"I haven’t got any savings. I work, pay my bills, bother nobody, I live month to month on my wages. I owe no money to anyone.
"I’ve got no savings, no pension, no property. I own some rollerskates and a car, and Piglet."
Asked about what it's been like living so long in her car, which is 23 years old, she said: "It's just a complete muddle, it's horrendous."
The search has also had its dangers.
Mellie said: "Two lads at one point tried to get in my car, entice me to let them in, pretending their phone was dead.
"I said 'you’re scaring me, move away from my car'.
"They tried to get in and in the end I had to start the car and drive off. I was all ready to be sleeping.
"It was a nightmare getting out of the car park in the pitch black down a dirty canal towpath."
Another time a suspicious man began acting oddly in a pub car park on the outskirts of Slough.
She got the manager to come out and move him on.
"He was on his hands and knees crawling around my car," she said.
Asked how she's going to afford petrol with her funds dwindling, she said: "That’s a very good question... I’m down to my last few hundred pounds."
A woman she's met along the way has offered to give her a tent so she can camp out and save money, which she intends to do eventually.
Mellie is also hardly eating.
"Today I’ve had a bread roll, and I’ve got a custard tart in my bag. Cold foods, really," she said.
"One of the ladies who booked a hotel room for me paid for the meal deal too so I had a whole dinner."
She continued: "I haven’t washed my hair for I don’t know how long.
"I’m in the same clothes, ripped jeans. I’ve had clothes given me, footwear given me.
"I used to get ID’d all the time, now I look like I’m 100. I feel it. I don’t care, I just want him back."
She said the prospect of putting her face all over social media and then the press is alien to her.
Crying, she said: "I’m just the most private person in the world, I walk round with a hat on all day.
"I just want to be invisible, I don’t want all this, I just want my dog, I want it all to go away.
"This is my worst nightmare having to go public. But I’ll do anything."
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A report has been filed to the Met Police about the theft, but when contacted by The Sun a spokesperson did not wish to comment.
For Mellie's GoFundMe page click here.
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