Survived 7 weeks under floorboards
The cat that survived seven weeks under the floorboards
by GAVIN MADELEY
When Debbie Duke discovered her beloved moggy Lucy had gone missing as the family prepared to move to a new home, she was distraught. The new house was 600 miles away and after initial efforts to find her proved fruitless, they began to give up hope of ever seeing their precious pet again. Fearing Lucy had run away from their old house in Kent, the Dukes were forced to leave her behind and fly with her family to their new life in Scotland.
But in an extraordinary tale of survival that proves the old adage about cats and their multiple lives, the man who bought their old home discovered little Lucy safe and well nearly two months after her disappearance - living under the floorboards. Amazingly, Lucy managed to survive for seven weeks without food or water before the stunned new occupants of the Dukes' former home heard her pitiful miaows and rescued her.
The 14-year-old moggy was so ill that a vet who examined her thought at first she was dead. But after weeks of specialist treatment, "lucky" Lucy was well enough to be reunited with her delighted family at the new home in inverness. Mrs Duke said: "We never believed we would see her alive again. It broke our hearts to leave Kent without her. To have her back is a real miracle."
Lucy's ordeal began the day Mrs Duke, 44, moved from Meopham, Kent, with her husband Geoff, 45, and children Bradley, 13, and Melissa, 18 months. The family had packed all their furniture the previous day and had left their cat behind while they spent their final night in a nearby hotel.The following morning, they took a taxi to the house to collect Lucy but she was nowhere to be seen.
Mrs Duke said: "We searched everywhere and couldn't understand how she had got out. We got the neighbours to help us search, but finally we had to get to the airport to catch the plane. Every one of us was heartbroken. I wept all the way to Scotland."
Her husband added: "We were outside the house and the taxi had its metre running, and I knew we had to catch that flight to Inverness. I made the decision to go and leave our friends and neighbours to catch Lucy. I presumed she would just turn up later that day and that she could be put on another flight up. When Lucy didn't turn up, I felt terrible that we had already left."
The family's neighbours promised to keep searching for Lucy and put up missing posters across the area, contacted the police and local vets and even placed her photo on a "missing pets" website. But as the weeks went by, hopes of seeing Lucy alive faded. Then, out of the blue, the Dukes received a phone call from the man who bought their house to say he had found her under the kitchen floor. The family believe a panel board under one of the kitchen units may have been been removed to accomodate the washing machine, giving Lucy just enough space to squeeze under the kitchen units.
It is thought she survived by licking water condensation from underfloor piping, while the new owners redecorated around her unaware of her plight.
An RSPCA officer took the puny creature to Meopham Veterinary Surgery where she was treated by vet Heidi Cooper.
Ms Cooper said: "When I saw the RSPCA officer I thought he had brought me the body of a dead cat. I have never seen a cat look so frail and still be alive. On the body condition score, Lucy scored 1 out of 5. She was verging on the point of death." Despite having lost almost 1kg in weight and being severely dehydrated, Lucy responded well to treatment and was back eating solid food again within five days.
Later, friends of the Dukes, Brian and Marion Glover, cared for her at home for a further month until Lucy was deemed fit enough to travel.
In all, the cost of Lucy's vet bills, coupled with Mr Duke having to travel back to London to pick her up totalled around £1,000. But Mr Duke insisted it was worth every penny to have Lucy back.
"Debbie, in particular, was heartbroken when we couldn't find Lucy," he said. "So paying the vets bills and flying down to pick her up myself weeks later may sound like a lot of money to spend, but in my eyes it is much cheaper than a divorce. We are just so delighted to have her back. How she survived we will never know. But she obviously had an incredible will to live."
A RSPCA spokeswoman said: "We are delighted to hear the cat has been found safe and well. It's a miraculous cat, but this is not unprecedented -we have heard of several cats in the past surviving for long periods without food or water. In this case, it probably survived on condensation from pipes. Losing a pet is very traumatic, and they must have been beside themselves when they discovered it was under the floorboards. But, at least the story has a happy ending."
Lucy
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