COUNTY NEWS:'˜Miracle' as pet cat owned by daughter of legendary film star is found after incredible journey
The little cat - called Teddy - disappeared on May 5 soon after moving into his new home near Horsham after arriving from the USA with his owner Beatrice Welles.
She launched a desperate search to find him and, incredibly, almost two months later, Teddy was discovered - thin and starving, but alive - by a walker on the Downs Link near West Grinstead. “It’s an absolute miracle,” said Beatrice. “It shows you should never give up hope.”
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Hide AdShe admitted that she had been close to doing just that after mounting a widespread campaign to find Teddy. She placed advertisements in newspapers, put up posters, alerted local vets and posted web appeals in a bid to track him down.
But it was a chance sighting by the walker on the Downs Link that finally ended Teddy’s incredible journey. The walker alerted a fellow walker - Nemi Fisher from Southwater - to the sighting. “We were in the middle of nowhere and it was obvious the cat was lost and was so thin,” said Nemi.
But it was only when they took him to Farthings vets in Guildford Road, Horsham, that Teddy’s identity was revealed. “The vets scanned him and found he had an American microchip and his name was Teddy.”
By a stroke of luck, a poster was displayed on the vet’s wall with a ‘Missing, Teddy’ appeal - and Teddy was at long last on his way back to the arms of his loving owner Beatrice.
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Hide Ad“I had a meltdown,” she said. “I had been holding out for so long.” She was on a train back to her home in Maplehurst from London when she heard the news via a voicemail on her mobile phone. “I burst into tears. Everyone was very kind to me on the train. I said I had got my cat back and the whole car celebrated with me.”
Now Teddy is back home, still recovering from his ordeal and frightened of being apart from Beatrice, who is amazed at how he - a ‘normal household cat’- managed to survive in the wild. Meanwhile, she gave thanks to everyone who had helped in her search for Teddy. “The local people have been amazing.”