Where is Caitlin’s cat?

HE was bought to symbolise the end of a little girl’s long battle with a deadly disease.

Whispers was given a home as an eight-week-old kitten to mark Caitlin Clarke’s recovery from a form of meningitis.

The pair were inseparable for two years until the cat mysteriously vanished from the family home in Lepton a week ago.

Caitlin, now aged 10, is distraught and her mum Amanda Mellor has launched a Facebook appeal to help find their missing pet.

Amanda said: “Caitlin completely devastated.

“Whispers has been part of the family from her being eight-yearsold to 10 – a significant part of her life.

“She had quite a traumatic experience with her meningitis and he’s a symbol of her getting through this.”

Caitlin was aged eight when in May 2015 she suddenly became unwell.

She suffered a rash which “looked like it had exploded” all over her body and was rushed to A&E at Calderdale Royal Hospital by ambulance.

There Amanda said she was given the wrong diagnosis and sent home but returned the following day as she was unable to get up or walk.

Blood tests confirmed that Caitlin had meningococcal septicaemia, a life-threatening form of blood poisoning.

She was transferred to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and remained in hospital for a week, her mum sleeping in a bed beside her during her stay.

Amanda said: “We talked about what she’d do when she came out and she said that she wanted to get a cat.

“As soon as she was able to go out looking we met the breeder and picked up Whispers at the end of May.

“He was very well looked after and treated like a baby.

“Because there’s just me and Caitlin now he became the third member of the family.

“They were inseparable and he would sit with her all the time.”

Amanda said that it is not like Whispers, a half Ragdoll pure white cat, to go far from the family home and he would normally return every night.

Whispers is fully vaccinated and microchipped but does not wear a collar.

He has been registered as missing with local vets practices and Amanda has appealed for help via Facebook.

She said: ”He’s a nice looking cat and my worry is that because he doesn’t wear a collar somebody could have mistaken him as a stray and taken him in. We miss him terribly and are offering a £500 reward for his safe return.”

Anyone who can help reunite the family with Whispers is asked to contact Amanda via www.facebook. com/amanda.mellor.77