A WOMAN desperate to be reunited with her beloved pet cat has hired a team of pet detectives to scour the streets of Buckhurst Hill in an attempt to track him down.

Sarah Holland, 36, of Scotland Road, has spent £400 on the Animal Search UK agency after the sudden disappearance of her nine-year-old moggy Teddy in November.

Ms Holland, who works for a bank in the city, is convinced someone must have stolen him, and has taken the unusual step of employing the detectives to conduct door-to-door enquiries and investigate possible “cat haters” in the area.

She said: “Teddy is like my little friend and I've had him since he was a kitten. I'm absolutely devastated he's gone and I'm going to do everything I can to get him back.

“He's never left home in all the time I've had him, someone must know something. He's either been stolen or killed, but either way I just want to know what's happened to him.”

Former police officer Tom Watkins, founder and owner of the detective agency, said that despite a sweep of Buckhurst Hill his team had not managed to track Teddy down, but added that their enquiries were on-going.

He said: “We got a very good reaction from people in Buckhurst Hill, and the residents were very helpful, some of them let us look in their back gardens and sheds.

“When we conduct our enquiries we search people's gardens, keep a look out for things like anti-freeze or other things which could harm an animal, and we ask if there are any people in the area who don't like cats, but obviously we would never trespass or break the law.

“But there seems to be no explanation for Teddy's disappearance. We have checked garages, sheds, outbuildings, common land, waste land and gardens in the area.

“Normally we would expect to get some news from a member of the public having carried out enquiries of this kind, but no-one has seen him since he went missing, it is a complete mystery.”

If you have information about Teddy's disappearance, you can ring Animal Search UK anonymously on 0800 4320 340, quoting reference number 0723. The line is open 24 hours a day.