Archie's Tale

aaaaahhh

Archie belongs to Karen, our head receptionist, and he disappeared one day, the same day as a rubbish skip was removed from their house. Karen's instinct was correct when she visited the landfill site where the skip was taken, some 5 miles away, at Petterden. She met a worker who had seen a big ginger fluffy cat run away when skips were being emptied. It had to be Archie!

She visited every evening for the next 2 weeks and nothing was found, despite a poster campaign and even an article in the local Courier . Karen thought all was lost. She even bought a new cat, as her other two cats were missing Archie so much.

One day while working at the Broughty surgery, she took a phone call from the SSPCA who are based near the landfill entrance. A ginger cat had been handed in by a local farmer. He had seen the cat around his steading for some time, but he was too timid to be caught. He was sure, from his condition, that he was someone's pet, so he fed Archie - he said he liked poached trout! - until he was able to catch him and hand him in. The SSPCA had scanned him and, as he had microchip, they were able to find out who his owner was - and it was Karen!

This was 10 weeks after he was whisked away in the skip! He was a huge 6 Kg when he left and was down to 4 Kg when he came home - and he really is a big boy.

The picture shows him overflowing the new cat's bed and they are the best of friends now.