Kitten returns home after surviving five days in blizzards
Frantic owner Samantha Chandler had just about given up hope of the eight-month-old pet still being alive, when she was found half frozen behind a shed after nearby residents heard a faint cry.
Gracie, who is the beloved pet of Samantha’s daughter, six-year-old Leah Barnett, is not allowed out of the family’s Kipling Avenue home in Blackhall because of fears she will wander onto the railway tracks.
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Hide AdBut, she managed to sneak out through the kitchen window while the 25-year-old businesswoman was cooking.
Samantha said they began searching for Gracie on the afternoon when they realised she was missing.
She said: “I was frantic, we were searching all over, I put posters up and leaflets through doors and it has been all over social media.
“The first night I thought she would just come back, but when the weather started to get so bad I was giving up hope that she could possibly survive in these temperatures.”
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Hide AdHowever, after five long days of worry and horrendous blizzards, Samantha got word that someone had heard a faint meowing in a nearby street.
She said: “I raced around there and was calling her, but couldn’t hear anything. Then I spotted some tiny paw prints in the snow and followed them.
“They went into a garden and I found her behind the shed.
“She was so pleased to see me. I have no idea how she managed to survive in those conditions.”
Gracie is very skinny, her tail was frozen solid and she has a few minor cuts to her paws, but otherwise she is none the worse for her ordeal which ended when she was reunited with her family last Friday.
Samantha said: “I am just so relieved that she is home. I can’t thank everyone enough for helping to look for her, especially the person who reported hearing her.”