Beautiful black cat Smokey went missing from his Torquay home on 23rd August 2021. “It’s a day I will never forget,” said his owner Pam, “When he didn’t come home as normal I was so worried about him.”
Pam and her husband Brian then launched a big search for Smokey – helped by neighbours, friends, work colleagues and volunteers from Cats Protection who all joined them on the search. They walked around the streets every night, put up posters, made endless phone calls to cat rescues all around the country. “I never gave up hope,” said Pam. Pam and Brian moved house, but never stopped going back to their old neighbourhood to check for their boy.
Then a whole year later, on their 35th Wedding Anniversary, the news that Pam and Brian had been hoping for finally came. They went back to their old house to collect mail and found a hand-written note from a Cats Protection volunteer – Smokey had been found! His microchip showed he had once lived at that address – but as the property was now vacant and the phone number registered was no longer working he had been taken to the Animals in Distress Rescue Centre in Ipplepen.
“We went straight to the Rescue Centre to find him, and there was our boy!” said Pam. “We were over the moon, we couldn’t believe it – and what a wonderful Anniversary gift!”
When Smokey first arrived at the Rescue Centre he was a bit skinny and quite matted, but not in too bad a condition considering he had been out there for a whole year. He had a cracked tooth, possibly caused by a fall, and our vets had to remove one of his teeth. He had been living rough in another area of Torquay where a kind soul had been feeding him. After a much-needed de-matting and de-fleaing and worming, a bit of feeding up and plenty of TLC, he was as good as new. He is such a lovely friendly boy so we knew he must have come from a loving home at some point.
Thankfully Smokey was microchipped which allowed us to trace his owners. Without the microchip Pam and Brian would never have found him again – this really does show the importance of cat owners getting their cats microchipped and keeping their details up to date.
After a tearful reunion with Smokey, Pam and Brian brought him back to their new home, where he is happily settling in again.
Pam said “We are over the moon to have him home with us again where he belongs. We’d say to anyone who has lost a cat – never give up looking – as miracles do happen!”
