A Big Issue Australia vendor has hit the headlines across the globe after police launched a hunt for her pet Chihuahua Fifi.

Ruth Reidy, 70, has revealed that she has been “living in hell” since her beloved pooch was taken from outside a supermarket in Rundle Mall near her pitch in Adelaide at 2pm on Tuesday.

BRING FIFI HOME

You might remember vendor Ruth and Fifi from The Big Issue calendar. This afternoon, Fifi was stolen out the front of the Rundle Mall @WOOLWORTHS_SA.

If anyone in the #Adelaide area has seen anything that could help bring Fifi home, please contact @crime_sa pic.twitter.com/y5aU1tTrE0

— The Big Issue (@thebigissue) April 16, 2019

Fifi was in a pram alongside Ruth’s mobile phone when they were taken. The pram was later found abandoned – neither the phone or the black and white Chihuahua have been recovered.

And that has left Ruth, who has sold our sister title The Big Issue Australia for five years and featured on their 2019 calendar, distraught – she has since penned a heart-breaking sign reading, “Please give my dog Fifi back. ‘I love her. Fifi is all I have in this life. Please.”

She tearfully told the Adelaide Advertiser: “I can’t stop thinking about what they are doing to her.

“I’m living in hell since she was taken. Please bring my dog back, I love her, I wouldn’t prosecute.”

The story has attracted the attention of news outlets across Australia as well as being reported globally on the Mail Online and MSN.

South Australia Police have released CCTV of a woman they wish to speak to in connection with Fifi’s disappearance. They have confirmed they are looking for a woman with dark hair, wearing a black cap, white top, black cropped jeans, sneakers and carrying a pink backpack crossing the street, with what appears to be the dog tucked under her arm.

Image: Big Issue Australia