A couple have spoken of their anguish after finding their beloved puppy dying in the garden after suffering suspicious head injuries.

Dianne and Stephen Hodgson, of the Gavels, Great Clifton, had had Tilly, a jackahuahua, for 10 months.

It was helping Dianne, 56, cope with the grief after she lost both her parents Ken and Dot Armstrong – and their other two dogs Lady and Sasha – in a short space of time.

On Saturday, Dianne let Tilly and her two other dogs in the garden, when she heard Tilly bark.

Dianne said: “When Tilly saw somebody walking on the street she would follow them along the fence and bark.

“I heard her barking and shouted through the window, I couldn’t see her so I went out and shouted again.

“I went down the side of the house and I found her laying on the path unconscious. I ran out and grabbed her, her heart was still beating but she wasn’t breathing. Her eye was about to come out.

“I tried to do CPR on her but in the car on the way to the vet I told Stephen that her heart had stopped beating.”

Dianne continued the CPR on the dog but even the vet was unable to resuscitate Tilly.

She added: “Tilly was special, she was my dog and she was helping me with my grief. 

"I’ve never had suicidal tendencies before but now I had to seek medical help. People will say that it was just a dog, but she was my world.”

Stephen, 58, said that when he got back from the vet, he looked in the garden to see if Tilly could have hurt herself with something but there was nothing there.

He added that next to where Dianne found Tilly, there was a stone the size of an egg, which could have caused the head injury.

Police spoke to neighbours and are treating the death as suspicious.

The couple, who have four daughters and three grandchildren, are offering a £100 reward to whoever can help apprehend the person responsible for the death of their dog.

Dianne said: “I just want to know why it happened. Now I’m wary of leaving the dogs outside. If I hear them barking I bring them back in straight away.

“I’m petrified at the idea that it could happen again. I don’t know how someone could be so callous, I don’t think they realise the damage they’ve done to the family, I’m totally devastated.”

Stephen added: “We weren’t planning on getting another dog until October, but Dianne was crying herself to sleep and she couldn’t cope. So on Monday we went and got another female jackahuahua, Fudge, from a lady in Middlesbrough.”

The couple are asking anyone with information to contact police on 101.