Betsy's online search for family goes global

11:54am Wednesday 9th July 2008

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The plight of a lost Kew cat has been tugging at heart-strings around the globe in a desperate bid to reunite her with her owner.

The social networking site for felines unitedcats.com, similar to the social networking site Facebook, has highlighted Betsy's story over the past two weeks.

The puss, who was taken to Kitten to Cat, London's only cat veterinary surgery in Kew, by a concerned member of the public, was last week named Cat Of The Week on the site and has since been gaining about 400 new friends a day from people and cats as far as Brazil, Africa and Thailand.

She is currently living at the Sandycombe Road surgery and vet Zeta Frasca, 32, who posted Betsy's story on the site, said: "We know from her microchip records that Betsy lived in Kew 12 years ago but the trail goes cold there.

"We've had an amazing response from people all around the world, however we need people from the local area to get in contact so we can re-locate Betsy with her owners."

Watch a video of Betsy

Zeta said they had come up with many reasons why Betsy cannot find her owners and added: "One theory is her family moved away and Betsy just wandered back to the old neighbourhood.

"A lot of people report their cats missing and they usually come back - sometimes they've been in a fight or had an accident - but Betsy had been reported living on the streets for nearly six months and was clearly malnourished."

She added: "If no-one comes forward to claim ownership of Betsy we will have to find her another home."

Betsy has about 3,000 friends on the website and has been given thousands of virtual pats and virtual gifts, including salmon and gift baskets, from well wishers.

If you think you know Betsy's owners email helpbetsy@kittentocat.com or contact the newsdesk on rtt@london.newsquest.co.uk or call 020 8744 4261.