Their feline companion was missing for almost a week after being left with a family member, while Paula Fervier and Ross Dinnett were on holiday. However their hunt for the missing moggy had a happy ending, and they asked the Barrhead News to help them thank everyone who helped find shy Penelope who turned up in an unexpected place. Here is the story as written by Ross.

A GOOD way to start a story is at the beginning. Our cats had been staying at Paula’s aunt’s in Barrhead whilst we were on holiday in Turkey, as usual the wee one Rosie was more friendly and Penelope, the shyer one, found her hiding places and rarely got out from under the duvet apart from at dinner time. All was well from Monday to Saturday, when Paula’s aunt last saw Penelope.

Not wanting to worry us on holiday and assuming (hoping) that Penelope would show up when Paula came to get them, Paula’s distraught aunt only told Paula when she picked her up on Tuesday. After spending four hours last night looking everywhere, I mean, ripping the house apart, cupboards out, fittings out, every nook and cranny searched, no sight or sound, we assumed the worst: that Penelope had escaped and that we would have to find her.

We were heartbroken and hysterical, I am not in least ashamed to say I cried, such is the love that we have for our cat, she has lived in my house longer than I have and it felt like a part of our heart had gone missing in Barrhead. We didn’t sleep, we barely ate but we set to work.

So last night I put the word on Facebook, and I can’t stress enough how much I appreciate the help that everyone gave in getting the word out, the discount I received on my posters from the cat-loving Print shop in Paisley, my work for giving me the day off and the two people who phoned me to say they had spotted a cat similar to Penelope and gave us information on where to look. Barrhead parents are some of the most well-wishing people I’ve ever met.

We turned up in Barrhead at 10 o’clock this morning and set to work looking for her, popping 200 MISSING CAT leaflets through the doors, searching every bush and hedge, every shed and wheely-bin, and spent a full hour searching a field so large I could no longer see or hear Paula shouting “Penelope!” every 10 seconds as we had done all day. Our last “sighting” (understandable-how many tabbys are there in Barrhead, someone should do a census) pointed us to Saint Thomas’ Parish church after someone had seen a tabby “belting down the road”, which for us fitted the bill for our lost scaredy cat.

We searched the grounds and Paula said a prayer. At this point we were hoping for a Miracle. We returned to base-camp at 4.30pm so Paula could get ready for work and I could get ready to walk up Darnley Road, to search the Graveyard then the Farm then who knows where.

I was standing chain-smoking cigarettes in the garden when I heard Paula screaming my name from the bathroom, I ran up the stairs frantically and Paula, thinking she was hallucinating from exhaustion and desperation told me to be quiet. She called out for Penelope and from — inside the wall ­— came the faintest of meows.

Sure enough I heard it too, no hallucination and we started calling for her, telling her we were going to get her and desperately trying to figure out how she got in there and how to get her out. I was ready to take a hammer to the wall when I heard scratching from inside the bathtub.

More frantic than at any point in the search I ran onto the road, stopped the first person I saw and told them we needed a stanley knife. Back in the house, I set to work on the bath, cutting and pulling, cutting and pulling until the panel would budge.

And sure enough there was our cat. Our cat was there.

I cannot emphasise enough how much we appreciate the effort everyone made to get the word out, even if in the end, it was misdirected energy. I can’t thank enough the people who took the time out their day to help us find our cat. Obviously the information we received in end proved to be inaccurate, but the well-wishing, the thoughts and prayers, helped us keep to the task. We weren’t leaving without her and we didn’t.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you