Search for missing cat after sibling found 400 miles from home in city
ACOUPLE is hoping for the return of their beautiful grey cat who they believe could be lost 400 miles away from home in Glasgow. Norfolk couple Toni Jarvis and Ben Smith’s four- year- old cats Duchess and Queenie went missing from their front garden in August, and after extensive local searches failed to find then, they lost all home of seeing them again.
Then, two months later, Duchess was found in Glasgow, 400 miles from their home in Great Yarmouth and she was returned thanks to her microchip.
Sadly, Queenie is still missing and the couple is now hoping a Christmas miracle will bring her home.
Toni, a health support worker, said: “I remember the day they went missing as if it were yesterday.
“We had to go out and both cats were playing in the front garden.
“We wouldn’t be out long, so my partner Ben said let’s leave them to play. I felt oddly nervous, but I left anyway.
“With hindsight, I should have trusted my instincts. When we got back the cats were nowhere to be seen. I knocked on my neighbour’s door and she said she had seen two workmen in our street fussing both cats but since they had gone, she hadn’t seen the cats.
“I called their names repeatedly as normally they would come running home, but nothing.
“I waited until after the school run and asked everyone on my road if they had seen them and no one had so we went looking for them, walking and calling their names for over two hours but there was neither sight nor sound of them.
“It was very odd that they had both gone missing.”
The next day, Toni posted on local Facebook pages, appealing for any news about the cats.
She also made posters and put them up in the street, and called local vets and cat rescue centres to see if they had been injured or taken into care.
Then, in October, Christine Cutts, cat welfare team leader at Cats Protection’s Anglia Coastal Branch, received a call from a microchip database company to check on a chipped cat that had been found in Glasgow.
Branch volunteer Lynne Pothecary said: “When the situation was explained Ben was very shocked and pleased to find out that Duchess had been found.
“He and his partner had thought that the cats were gone for good.
“They couldn’t believe she’d been found so far away in Scotland and couldn’t imagine how she got there.”
Toni added: “I was at work when Ben called to say Duchess had been found. I remember asking if it was real, I couldn’t believe him.
“I was crying down the phone, with my colleagues asking if I was ok and Ben telling me to calm down. I had to wait for another phone call an hour later when he had more details. It felt like a lifetime.”
That later call revealed that Duchess had been found roaming the streets of Glasgow and was taken to a vet by a lady who assumed she was lost.
A few days later, a neighbour who had been visiting Scotland brought her home to the family.
Ben and Toni believe the inseparable pair may have followed each other into misadventure and Queenie could still be in Glasgow.
Toni said: “All we can assume is that they stowed away together aboard a van and the driver didn’t realise they were there.
“That’s why we hope Queenie might still be found.”
She continued: “Duchess is very playful but she does seem to be missing her sister. She’s not her usual self but our kids are trying to make her feel like everything is normal.”
Anyone with information about Queenie’s whereabouts is asked to contact Cats Protection’s Anglia Coastal Brand at publicity@ angliacoastal. cats. org. uk.