- TitleMiracle return of missing Tufnell Park moggie Flora
- Author
- MaterialArticle
- NotesIslington Tribune filed at A-Z periodicals (Islington Local History Centre)
Lost Tufnell Park cat Flora has been reunited with her owners after being discovered 10 miles away in south London – two weeks after she went missing.
The beautiful two-year-old Bengal, adored by its owners’ two young sons, vanished on May 12, leaving her family in Dalmeny Road distraught. They launched a hunt for Flora using posters, social media and even enlisting the services of a pet detective.
But Flora was miraculously found last Thursday after a woman discovered her discarded collar with name tag in her back garden and contacted the owner, Ruth Shurman, who rushed down to south London after work with her husband Roman Pardon.
Ms Shurman said: “Just one day short of a fortnight [of Flora going missing] I received a phone call. A woman said she’d found my cat’s collar and seen my number on the name tag. I asked what road she lived in, assuming it would be somewhere within a few hundred metres of home.
“She mentioned a name I didn’t recognise – and when I asked where the road was, to my utter amazement, she said it was in Balham.
Ms Shurman added: “I arranged to meet my husband that evening in distant south London, telling him to bring new posters and leaflets and – just in case – our cat basket and some food.”
The couple went door to door but their spirits were lifted when some residents told them they had seen a beautiful Bengal cat in the area.
“As I walked from house to house, I called out for Flora, and then suddenly, a little further along the terrace, a small furry creature emerged from a garden gate and miaowed at me. Not a moment’s doubt – it was Flora!,” Ms Shurman added.
The cat is now back at home and the entire family is in “a state of ecstatic delight and relief”, she said, adding: “To have found one tiny cat in this immense city is a very wonderful thing.”
Architect Mr Pardon, 49, believes that on the day she went missing, Flora may have jumped into a delivery truck to get away from the heavy rain, and ended up in south London.
He added: “It’s pretty miraculous, a bit like a Disney story. Flora lost 25 per cent of her body weight but other than that she was fine. It’s weird how attached you become to a little animal living in your house. The lesson is to have a catflap and a collar. If she hadn’t had a name tag on her collar, it’s unlikely we would’ve found her.”
- Keywords
- Geographical keyword
- Persons keyword


