When pets go missing, many first turn to social media for help but one Belsize resident found a more “neighbourly” approach was best.
Scared witless by heavy thunderstorms Amber a cat of the “British Longhair” variety bolted out of her home in Upper Park Road and didn’t come back.
For three weeks there was no sign of Amber. Her owner, Victoria Younger, was desperate. All her online appeals went unanswered.
Then she decided on the more old-fashioned custom of pinning “missing cat” notices on more than 50 trees and lamp posts around the neighbourhood with her phone number and a photo of Amber. Sympathy messages came in from cat lovers all over Belsize Park but all to no avail.
“I’d given up hope. Amber had never left home before”, said Victoria.
In fact, Amber had found refuge in a house in nearby Lawn Road. Not just any house but the home of pet-loving barrister Pamela Rose, an expert in many animal legal cases who knew a runaway cat when she saw one.
Word spread and by a stroke of luck, a near neighbour spotted Amber in Pamela’s garden, remembered the missing cat appeals and sent a photo to Victoria. One call and a delighted owner and Amber were re-united.
“I felt I had won the lottery” said Victoria, who plans to fit a tracker on Amber but in the meantime was full of praise for the great support she’d received from her Belsize neighbours.
(from Peter Wallace, Committee member)
