Family from Brockley, near Bury St Edmunds, reunited with cat and daughter’s ‘best friend’ that went missing for weeks
A family is delighted after reuniting with their cat and nine-year-old daughter’s ‘best friend’ that went missing for nearly 10 weeks.
Sarah Wingfield, 41, and her family went on holiday in August and when they returned they were told by the woman who was feeding their one-year-old ginger cat Ted, that she hadn’t seen him for four days.
Sarah, who lives in Brockley, near Bury St Edmunds, along with her husband Dean, 39, and children Evie, Esmee and Corey, took to social media and put up posters around the village and surrounding area in a bid to bring him home.
According to Sarah, Ted was very popular in the area and most people knew of him as he even attended chapel services in Brockley.
However, after nine weeks of constant searching and a couple of false alarms, the ginger feline was nowhere to be seen.
“We were absolutely devastated by the news and as the weeks went on, it got harder and harder as we didn’t even know if he was alive”, Sarah said.
“We were looking everywhere, walking for miles and it was just awful, especially for Evie as Ted and her are best friends.
“While Ted was missing it really affected her. She was really strong but she really struggled with it and there were tears every night.”
After Ted was born in July 2023 with three siblings, Evie was allowed to keep him as her very own pet and from the day he was born, she fell in love with him.
Since then, the duo’s relationship grew stronger with Ted regularly sitting by the front door waiting for Evie to get home from school.
So when they were informed of a Ted sighting on October 8 in Little Saxham, Sarah and Evie rushed over to check it was him - which it was - but they had no luck trying to catch him.
Following a couple more Ted sightings, Sarah was notified by Great Saxham resident Jenny Cameron on October 17, that she had a cat meowing at her front door that looked exactly like Ted.
Jenny let the cat into her home and after waiting for Evie to finish school, Sarah drove to Great Saxham and where they were finally reunited with Ted.
“It was the biggest relief especially after the sightings of him,” Sarah said.
“We went to the bathroom and there was Ted who jumped straight on Evie and just started purring loudly.
“It was a really strange situation actually but it was just a really amazing and emotional moment.”
“We took him home and Ted was just glued to Evie. He just wanted to be in her arms.”
The following day, Ted was taken to the vet to have a health check and to get his microchip checked to make sure it was him, before returning home to be with his family again.
