Woman threatens legal action over missing cat now believed to be in Dunstable

A woman from Doncaster is reaching out to the person who has her cat - 120 miles away in Dunstable.

And Deborah Spencer is now considering legal action in her bid to be reunited with her moggie, Oscar.

She adopted the tabby in 2004 and they lived happily before moving on to Dunscroft in 2018. However, during the upheaval of the house move, Deborah forgot to send off Oscar's updated identichip contact details.

She said: "Then one morning in February 2020, he disappeared.

"After searching for him and doing a leaflet drop, informing the vets and asking at local rescues, there were no sightings or news about Oscar. He'd vanished.

"I was heartbroken but still clung on to the hope he would return. Time went by and my hope of seeing him again faded. I began to resign myself to thinking he was old and could have suddenly passed away."

Then, Deborah decided to visit a lost and found pet website to see if she could find her beloved pet.

She said: "To my absolute astonishment a picture of Oscar came up on a post about a nearly 20-year-old cat being linked with an address in South Yorkshire.

"I wrote immediately on to the post that it looked like and could be my cat."

Oscar somehow had ended up in a rescue centre in Liverpool, which rehomed him miles away in Dunstable.

Deborah added: "I sent an email to the centre and a text message to try and intercept before it was too late."

She finally got through to the centre - and although it confirmed the cat in question was indeed Oscar - it was too late and he had been rehomed.

She says pleas for Oscar's return have been ignored and she is now considering legal action.

"I strongly urge the person who has Oscar to come forward now and hand Oscar back otherwise they will find themselves becoming party to court proceedings. Any continuation by this person of preventing Oscar being reunited with his owner (myself) will be seen as a deliberate act.

"Oscar has only a few months to live. I've already lost him once and thought he was gone forever. I don't want to lose him a second time, not like this.

"Oscar needs to spend what time he has left with his owner in familiar surroundings, knowing he finally made it back home. Oscar has been loved and looked after all these years and only became separated due to some strange twist of fate."

If you can help, call Deborah Spencer on 07766 859293 or email her at [email protected]