REUNITED . . . retired nurse Heather Herbert with her pet Siamese cat Rodney
She had given up on ever seeing the three-year-old Egyptian Siamese called Rodney again after he escaped when she was taking him to the vet for inoculations.
He leapt from her parked car when the door to his carrier cage accidentally sprung open as she was about to take him into the Firth Veterinary Centre in Ednam Street, Annan.
Heather, a former specialist dementia nurse, was horrified when the much-loved pet panicked among the traffic noise and bustle of the busy town centre street.
She said: “He didn’t know what to do. Running from place to place. The vet came out to help me and at one point we nearly caught him when he was sitting under a parked car.
“Unfortunately something spooked him and the last we saw of him he was running into the car park at the old Ednam Street School.”
Heather, of Drummond Road, Annan — also pictured below — who retired early for health and mobility reasons, greatly appreciates the company of her four pet cats.
She said: “I returned for weeks to the town centre almost every day to shout for Rodney to no avail.
“He’s very special to me but I eventually reluctantly resigned myself to thinking something had happened to him.”
However, the story had a happy ending more than six months later thanks to another Annan cat enthusiast Lynn Lockerby.
The Kennels Road resident launched a poster and social media appeal after her three-year-old Siamese cat Hamish vanished.
She was tipped off online that a tom cat fitting his description was living feral among old farm buildings at The Howes, west of Annan.
With the help of residents of the hamlet and a food lure safe cat trap, loaned by the charity Cat Protection, Lynn managed to catch the roaming moggy.
She said: “A kind lady at The Howes contacted me immediately when the trap was sprung but my hopes were dashed when the Siamese turned out not to be Hamish.
“I took the cat to the vets in Annan for a checkover, during which they scanned him for a microchip. It then came up with Heather’s address and we were able to reunite Rodney with her.”
There was a double happy ending when a few days later Lynn’s cat Hamish arrived home of his own accord, a little bedraggled but otherwise none the worse for his extended absence.
Heather, a widow, was full of praise for Lynn and everyone who helped return her pet.
She said: “I was quite emotional. I truly did not think I would see him again. He recognised me as soon as he saw me and rushed up to me.
“I think he must have gone over one of the river bridges when he panicked and become disorientated. He seems to have been roaming during the six months and there was even a possible sighting as far away as Powfoot.”
Both Heather and Lynn believed the experience illustrated the value of having domestic cats microchipped for the national pet database.
