Homemade dog kennel stolen

James McKinley-Blake, 12, of Meeanee had one of his small dog kennels stolen from his home. Photo/Warren Buckland

James McKinley-Blake woke up on Sunday morning to find one of his homemade dog kennels missing from their driveway.

The 12-year-old had been building dog kennels out of wood and iron with his dad since Christmas so he could save up for a go-kart.

"When I went to sleep on Saturday there were three kennels but when I went outside the next day I could only see two."

The pair had spent hours on the kennel building it after school and also on the weekends.

"It takes us about two weeks to do the A-frame design and then we start to do adjustments."

Mother Tracey thought someone may have taken it for a walk on Saturday night as the Meeanee pub was not far from their house.

"We have gone to the police about it and we also rang the neighbours who said they would keep an eye out."

James said one positive had come out of a negative because the Napier police station put up his for-sale sign on their pin-board.

"It was cool they let me put it on the pin-board. Hopefully people want to buy them to make up for the lost one."

He was sad someone had stolen the kennel because he had spent a lot of time building and constructing it.

Another reason the father and son duo decided to build the kennels was for their dog they got at Christmas.

"We thought we could make our own as I like building stuff and it would be fun to do and we found the store kennels expensive."

The pair were building another one at the moment but they would love to see their other one returned.

James said he enjoyed making the kennels and thought it was all going well but hoped someone would find the kennel so their hard work did not go to waste.

The smaller kennels were valued at $130 and the larger kennel was $150.

If you have any information about where the kennel is call Tracey on 844 4680 or 022 672 0318.