CAT lovers joined forces to reunite a woman with her missing moggy after it disappeared on the day she moved 200 miles away from her former Bromsgrove home.
Laura Charalambous was moving to Sunderland a month ago but on the day she was set to leave her beloved Mitzy was nowhere to be seen. Unable to postpone her journey Laura called Bromsgrove-based cat-sitting agency Kitty Angel, which she had used before, for their help whilst she was on the train to her new home.
Jason Ward, owner of Kitty Angels, said: “Laura contacted us with a real panic – Mitzy had gone missing in Cotteridge and Laura didn’t know anyone there. She was devastated and didn’t know who else to call.
“We immediately decided we had to try and find Mitzy – we couldn’t leave her lost and hungry so we immediately initiated a search, putting up flyers and speaking to residents, builders and shop owners to see if they had seen Mitzy.”
They took to social media to get the word out and members from cat groups joined the search, which resulted in possible sightings. A member of Kitty Angels went out for every sighting but had no luck.
One member, Sharon Cartwright, who had particularly bonded with Mitzy and Laura’s other cat George whilst cat-sitting, made it her mission to find Mitzy, and took to the streets every time a sighting was reported, including one at 12.30am.
Just as Laura was giving up hope the search party received a call from staff at Greggs who had found Mitzy.
Sharon travelled from Bromsgrove and called Lisa hunt, who runs rescue centre Fur and Feathers and used a chip reader to confirm the cat was Mitzy.
Mr Ward added: “We immediately phoned her relieved owner, Laura, who started to sob uncontrollably – she was so happy.”
But the happy ending was still not complete as the group had the added challenge of getting Mitzy to Sunderland.
Another online call was put out to all cat lovers to help and sure enough Lisa’s contact, Joanne Mitchell, from Middlesborough, offered to do part of the journey. Sharon met her in Sheffield and Joanne took Mitzy to Sunderland where she was reunited with a tearful Laura.
Laura said: “I can’t thank Kitty Angels enough. I can’t actually believe it, I really was losing hope but they kept going.
“It’s such a fantastic day – they really are Kitty Angels.”
