Le Havre to Dover

This is a story of kindness from a British police officer and a British veterinarian who together managed to reunite a French tabby cat with his French owners in Le Havre after he had taken a cross channel ferry to Dover, England.

The players:

• Cat – Poussey (a French name) – a three year old tabby
• Cat’s Owner – Sadrine Foehr who lives in Le Havre on the coast of northern France where the cross channel ferries dock from England.
• Policeman – PC David Palmer (based in Dover, Kent, England)
• Veterinarian – Jeremy Stattersfield (based in Dover as well)

Poussey had a microchip that identified him as belonging to a previous owner who had gone away. Poussey had walked into the lives of the Foehr family. They had adopted him and learnt to love him.

Poussey is a wandering cat. One day Poussy walked onto a cross channel ferry that had come from Dover, England and which had docked at Le Havre. He sailed with the ship back to Dover.

On arrival at Dover, England Poussey was spotted wandering around the car deck of the ferry by PC Palmer who took charge of him. He found out he was from France but the microchip told him incorrectly that his owner had moved. This was a death sentence for Poussey because he had no pet passport and was a rabies hazard (England is free of rabies and has strict controls). Poussey had to be put into 6 months quarantine at a cost of £500 (and who would pay that?) or be put to sleep.

PC Palmer did heroic work looking for a shelter but the cost was prohibitive. This is when veterinarian Jeremy Stattersfield stepped in. He volunteered to administer the injections, issued a pet passport and made arrangements for Poussey to be homed at a nearby quarantine cattery all free of charge. Heroic again.

Then PC Palmer, in one last attempt at reuniting Poussey with his owner, arranged for a note to be left at Poussey’s former home.

By sheer luck, Mrs Foehr had gone to Poussey’s former home to see if her cat was there. She found the note and telephoned PC Palmer in England.

And that was the beginning of the reunion. Phew. Mrs Foehr’s children were over the moon with joy. Mrs Foehr took a ferry to Dover and picked up her cat from Jeremy Stattersfield’s clinic.

And that, my friends, is the story of two kind and heroic British citizens who would not give up in their quest to reunite a much loved wandering French tabby cat called Poussey with his family.

Notes:

1. The story comes from the Daily Mail newspaper. I have discovered that ferries to Le Havre arrive from Portsmouth not Dover. Perhaps the good policeman work in Portsmouth. I am not sure.
2. I wonder if “Poussey” is French for “Pussy’?