This time, everything was as it should be. Dinky the cat was inside his cage.
The last time Dinky’s owners had gone to collect him from Gatwick airport, it was different story. They were met with every pet owner’s worst nightmare—the sight of an empty cage.
His owners, who were finally reunited with their missing ragdoll cat after 2 months, said that finding the missing cat and bringing him home was a miracle.
Dinky had been separated from his owners by 3,400 miles and missing for 7 weeks after he was taken to a Dubai airport ready for a flight to the UK.
Dinky was finally reunited with owners Sue and Ian Lees and taken to settle into his new home on Sept 30.
On July 27 they left Dubai, where they had lived for 5 years, to move back to the UK, intending to bring their two cats with them. They left their cats in the hands of the cargo crew, but on arriving in the UK, discovered only one cat had made it.
After Dinky went missing, people turned to social media to track down the missing pet. At first, the search focused on the area around Gatwick airport, but then Ian became convinced the cat was still in Dubai.
Seven weeks passed, with no word. Ian had flown out to Dubai especially to track down Dinky, when he was informed by the Dubai Municipality that someone had handed in Dinky.
“It was nothing short of a miracle,” Lees told Gulf News.
“At my age it’s easy to become cynical. But who could have ever imagined finding a London-bound cat that got lost in Dubai probably more than once after 60 days? It restores my faith in humanity. There are many people out there who will go to any lengths to help others.”
His daughter said that her father had become convinced that Dinky was still in Dubai when he examined the empty animal carrier that had been brought to Gatwick. “He could tell a cat could not have been inside the carrier for more than a couple of hours as the bedding was intact. So he concluded Dinky escaped from the carrier in Dubai itself before the flight took off, ” she told Gulf News.
A facebook page, set up called “Dinky, the most famous cat in Dubai,” now displays pictures of Dinky with his happy owners back in the UK, and settling into his new home.
