Cat crosses the Canal

A stray cat found wandering the streets of Plymouth turned out to be hundreds of miles from her home - in Holland.

Vets hoped it would be easy to reunite the cat, which they named Sybil, with her owners because she had been implanted with an identity chip.

They were astonished to discover that the cat was registered to owners in the northern Dutch port of Den Helder.

The 10-year-old cat, whose registered name is Ceefa, was handed in to the local PDSA PetAid Hospital last Friday.

Vets rang the telephone number of the cat’s owners in Holland, but got no reply, leading them to suspect they had probably moved to the UK.

Robert Newcombe, senior veterinary surgeon with the PDSA in Plymouth, said it was “very very unlikely” that Sybil had made her own way to Britain.

“I do know of cats that have made journeys home of six to eight miles, but that’s about it as far as my personal experience goes.

“I wouldn’t expect a cat to be able to make the journey via a ferry or the Channel Tunnel.”

The port of Den Helder is more than 500 miles from Plymouth.

He urged pet owners to ensure they updated their address details on the identity chip database when they moved house.

Domesticated

Sybil is being looked after at Gables Farm Cats and Dogs home in Plymouth.

Tony Harris, general manager, said: “Every effort will be made to find the owner based on the information we have.

“People remember to do all the other things but they forget to change the details of the cat.”

Mr Harris says the cat seemed very happy and domesticated, but said that so far nobody had tried speaking to her in Dutch.

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