Cheska our Animal Welfare Officer reports on a touching tale of a homeless cat.
In late October Tinkerbelle was handed into one of the fantastic vets that we use in our branch area, reported unfortunately as a stray.
Upon examination, the vet team there found that she was underweight, and had some sores and flea allergy dermatitis as a result of her adventure on the streets. As with all cats that come to us, our first port of call is to scan them for a microchip, as this can help us get the cat back to their owner as quickly as possible.
Luckily Tinkerbelle had a microchip so we were able to start off with some clues as to where she had come from. The microchip also told us her name was Tinkerbelle, and that she was 4 years old. Although the microchip had a name, number and address registered to it, the phone number unfortunately wouldn’t connect, so this made it difficult finding her owners.
While we were trying to think outside the box to get Tinkerbelle reunited with her family, we took her to one of our private boarding establishments where she could get some love and attention. We took this opportunity to find out more about Tinkerbelle’s personality and it was obvious how much love she had to offer!
Four days later she was taken in by one of our valued fosterers who jumped at the chance to take care of Tinkerbelle while we kept working in the background to find her owner.
The fosterer provided a warm, safe and loving home during this time, and I was surprised later on that day to receive photos of Tinkerbelle already sitting on her lap while she worked from home!
For the next month I was treated to lots of professional photographs from the fosterer of Tinkerbelle looking her absolute best, and I’m delighted that she did such a great job of caring for her.
In the meantime, Jacqui our resourceful Branch Manager was on the hunt for Tinkerbelle’s owners. She decided that probably our best bet was to write to the address registered to the microchip, even though the address was far away and unlikely to be where she came from in this instance.
It turned out that Jacqui struck gold, as while Tinkerbelle’s family didn’t live there anymore, the family who reside there now were able to track down where Deborah – Tinkerbelle’s owner – had moved to. Right to Thornton Heath!
I had the absolute pleasure of physically reuniting Tinkerbelle with Deborah on the 22nd November where she was lovingly welcomed by her family. They told me that getting Tinkerbelle back has made their family whole again, and I found it so touching. Here is a photo with Deborah and Tinkerbelle reunited!
Do you have what it takes to be a cat fosterer? If you have enough space at home, love cats, are home for large parts of the day, and have experience in looking after feline friends, we’d love to hear from you. Please see our volunteer page for details of how to become one of our amazing fosterers.
Tinkerbelle’s story is a perfect illustration of the importance of microchipping your cat or dog. Without it she would have been lost to Deborah forever. Equally important is to keep your details up to date with the microchipping company as you may not be as lucky as Tinkerbelle & Deborah if you move or change phone number.
If you need financial help to pay for your pet to be microchipped (and/or neutered) we may be able to assist. See our financial assistance page for details.
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