When Apollo disappeared whilst on a walk his owners feared the worse and presumed he had been stolen. They enlisted the help of Animal Search UK who carried out a poster and leaflet campaign which uses a confidential free phone number to allow people to come forward with news.

On the 14th July – 10 days after disappearing – a call was received in the headquarters to say that Apollo had been sighted, but had run off into the undergrowth.

A call was immediately made to Apollo’s owners who were able to be at the scene in 5 minutes and start an on foot search of the area.

He was found moments later terrified and hiding in a ditch, but his owners managed to coax him out with plenty of encouragement, and he was taken to the vets for treatment.

Luckily he has made a fantastic recovery from his arduous ordeal and has settled back in at home with his very grateful and relieved owners.

Karen said: “I can’t thank you all enough at Animal Search UK as I do feel it was due to your posters and your prompt service that managed to get Apollo back for me. I would also like to say to everyone who loses a pet please don't give up finding them, tell everyone in the area that your pet is lost and take advantage of a service such as Animal Search who can also offer support and lots of great advice as well as the poster and call centre service”

Rufus and his owner Sharon Webb were reunited after Rufus had been missing for some time. It was because of a poster campaign carried out by Animal Search UK that Rufus was found, and ever since Sharon has been a friend and supporter of Animal Search UK. Sharon has recently volunteered her services to help with searches in the Herefordshire and Worcestershire regions.

A grateful cat owner has been reunited with Misty her pet cat thanks to an Animal Search UK poster campaign after Misty apparently spent a month locked in a shed.Corinne Regan, 36, of Peebles, said she would love to be able to ask two-year-old Misty how she managed to survive her time away from home.


Animal Search UK said she may have survived by licking condensation off windows.Ms Regan said she had given up hope of finding Misty. However, the Animal Search UK call centre was phoned by a householder in a neighbouring street who had seen posters of missing Misty and spotted her in a shed.

Ms Regan said the cat did not appear to have been harmed by the incident. She's lost more than a kilogram in weight and she's pretty skinny, she said. She's been dying for attention but we haven't let her back out just yet. I'd love to be able to ask her how exactly she managed to survive.

Longest time

Tom said I've a lot of experience with missing cats but I've never come across a cat that has survived being locked in a shed for four weeks.This is definitely the longest time I've ever seen a cat survive after being trapped somewhere. She must have licked the condensation off the inside of the windows and eaten whatever mice she came across.

SSPCA comment:
Ch Supt Mike Flynn of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was not unusual for cats to get trapped in sheds or garages.

Cats are naturally inquisitive and often like to shelter in warm places, he said. However, to survive while trapped for four weeks is extremely unusual and we are delighted to hear Misty is okay.

Henry the cat has had a lot to contend with in his life, this is just one more accomplishment to be added to the 'Miracle cats' list (as known by his owner Steve Blair-Allwright)

At just four years old Henry manages to cope with being deaf and has overcome the loss of one of his legs. When he went missing and the days turned from weeks to months, Henry's owners feared the worse. Needless to say they were over-joyed to receive a call from Animal Search UK with the news that led to his safe return.

Tom Watkins Founder of Animal Search UK said “All the team here were delighted that we were able to play a part in Henry being reunited after over 150 days of being missing . Bearing in mind his difficulties it is remarkable that he came to no harm after becoming lost for so long. Our headquarters deal with over 1000 reports of missing pets each month, often it’s our free lost and found website (www.animalsearchuk.co.uk) that results in pets being reunited.

In Henry’s case we had carried out a professional poster campaign as well as displaying his details on our website. Our thanks also go to Derbyshire Cats protection who actually contacted us after seeing our publicity to say they thought they knew where Henry was. We wish Henry and his family a great Christmas with lots of cuddles all round!”

For nine months there was no sign of Smokey, the 14-year-old cat, who had vanished from her Hereford home while her owners were on holiday.

Then, thanks to a message and picture posted up on the animalsearchuk.co.uk website, she was found.

Joyful owner Christine Short, of Buckfast Close, Hunderton, said: 'We went on holiday and two of our four cats went missing. The first was chipped and was returned to us but there has been no sign of Smokey until now. She was living in the roof cavity space of a partially built conservatory at Broomy Hill over the river.'

'She heard my voice and started meowing. I knew it was her, she talks to you.'
Husband Peter said: 'Smokey is quite a character and followed me and the children around when we used to deliver the journal door-to-door. We are over the moon to have her home.'

Article courtesy of the Hereford Journal 15/12/10 edition.

'The Animal Search UK website is free of charge to use for any one in the UK who has lost or found a pet. Smokey's missing profile on the website was the key to her being found, without this she wouldn't have been home in time for Christmas and we are glad we've been able to deliver this Christmas present early!' said Cherrie - Team Leader from Animal Search UK

May was a busy time for the Animal Search UK team and we decided to recruit a new member of staff - Jaimes Wall. Jaimes’s enthusiasm and excellent customer service skills and had been noticed by Tom when Jaimes served him as a customer one day. After an interview Tom decided that Jaimes’s skills and polite manner would go down well with Animal Search UK’s customers and he joined us on his first search for a cat named Casper.

Casper had been missing for 12 days when we started our search and after travelling 160 mile to Redhill in Surrey, Tom and Jaimes started distributing leaflets and putting up posters in the neighbourhood.

It was then time to start door-to-door enquiries, at the first house that Jaimes visited he spoke to a young lady and asked her the relevant questions about Casper and whether she had seen him recently. She then mentioned that she had seen a cat on the flat roof at the rear of her house over the last week or so.

Jaimes quickly went to the back of the house where unbelievably he identified the cat straight away as Casper the missing Persian. A team effort then ensued to keep Casper in one place with food and titbits, while a cat basket was collected from the van outside in the street.

A rooftop rescue then took place with dramatic moments as Casper was carefully coaxed into the cat basket and safely locked inside.

His owners, who were working in a totally different area that day, were thrilled when they received a text message photo to confirm that Casper had been found safe, thinner, but generally quite well on the flat roof 20 or so doors away from their own home. Twelve days out in the fresh air hadn’t caused Casper any major problems and after a trip to the vet the next day he was given the all clear to continue family life. Although now grounded for some period of time he really is pleased to be back with his Mum and Dad and will not be venturing onto that flat roof again in the near future.

Having tried everything they could think of the owners in this case did the right thing by turning to Animal Search UK, as it was as a direct result of our enquiries and Jaimes’s diligence that led to the right person giving us enough information to effect re-unification of Casper with his family. Why the young lady that had seen him on the roof had not responded to one of the posters that she had seen in the street several days before, we will never know. But thanks to our hard work, determination and thoroughness in asking everyone we saw and spoke to in the area, it paid off and there was a happy ending eventually.

Here Casper can be seen in the picture, with his owner Theresa, Jaimes and Tom.