Good golly they missed Mollie
Published: July 31, 2006
IT sounds like the kind of shaggy dog story more suited to Lassie or the Littlest Hobo.
But when Mollie the miniature schnauzer was found alive and well after disappearing from her Craigmillar Park home for more than a year, her family enjoyed the kind of happy ending more associated with the famous pooches.
Three-year-old Mollie had only been in Edinburgh for five months after her owners, the Floyd family, moved to the Capital from Stirling to run the Northumberland Hotel. She had never even ventured outside her home except to be taken for a walk, before she suddenly disappeared without trace on a hot summer’s day last June.
And although her family tried desperately to find her in the months that followed, she wasn’t found despite having an ID chip implanted under her skin. Mollie’s owner Heather Floyd, 44, who runs the hotel with husband Jonathan, said they had almost given up hope of ever seeing their beloved pet again when they received a phone call from the Edinburgh Cat and Dog Home telling them she was alive and well.
It appears Mollie had managed to stay alive by scavenging as a stray around the city’s streets and looked as though she had been regularly fed.
Heather said: “It was just amazing. For months we’d scoured the city looking for her and we’d nearly given up hope.
“We told the kids that, as long as she was being looked after, then it was okay if she didn’t come back. We certainly didn’t expect to get a call after all this time telling us that she had been found.”
She added that their children, 22-year-old Jenna, Kevin, 17, and six-year-old Georgia had spent months putting up missing posters for Mollie after she ran away, but had been devastated by a series of prank calls claiming to have found her. In recent months, their search was scaled down to asking local park wardens if they’d seen any trace of her.
But they were stunned to learn on Wednesday that their pet had been found by a dog warden just a few miles down the road in Gilmerton, rather than living in squalor elsewhere in the city, as they had feared.
“They told us she was absolutely fine and had probably been looked after by an elderly couple. And if that’s the case, I just want to thank them for taking care of her.
“It was a real surprise when we found out that she’d been living just down the road.”
Although Mollie had a distinctive, bright pink collar with her name and address carved on it when she went missing, it had long since disappeared when she was found.
It was only thanks to a special microchip implanted under her coat that Mollie was able to be identified and reunited with her delighted family - as she was practically unrecognisable after months of not being groomed or having her hair cut.
“Her coat was just so matted and long that we couldn’t tell it was her,” Mrs Floyd added. “She looked like she had dreadlocks or something, but she immediately recognised us when we saw her.”
After being taken to Christine’s Dog Grooming Parlour of Gorgie for a trim and a wash, Mollie returned home on Thursday.
David Ewing from the Edinburgh Cat and Dog Home, who identified Mollie, said: “The dog had been living in Edinburgh and found by the local dog warden earlier this week. I think someone’s had her in their home and has been feeding her, because she is fairly healthy. She was in quite a state when she came in but she’s gone for a trim and a wash to look like her old self and is now back with her family.”
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