A DISTRAUGHT pet owner  is searching for her pedigree cat which she fears has  been stolen.

Woody is a four-year-old  Persian cat belonging to  Michelle Foster, of Old Rydon Lane, Exeter.

Ms Foster, who is a medical secretary at the Royal  Devon & Exeter Hospital,  believes that  Woody may  have been taken by a man in  a midnight-blue people carrier.

She said: “My friend and I  were sitting on the swing  chair in the front of my  house and my three Persian  cats, Ted, Harley and  Woody, were sitting  halfway down the drive  catching flies. Then a car  drove past and we didn’t  think a lot of it. It went up  the lane and came back and  then parked in a turning.   The man had dark hair and  a track-suit top.

“Woody was the nearest  to the road.  We could see  him sitting there and the  next minute he was gone.”

Ms Foster and her friend  walked to where the car had  been. It had driven off and  Woody had disappeared.

“We searched for two  hours,” she said.  “He is not  one to walk off and is a very  docile cat so we think that  the man in the car may have  taken him.

“I burst into tears. The  next day we  checked the pet  shops, Cat Protection and  the RSPCA, but he hadn’t  been handed in.

“The police have taken a  description but unless  someone turns up with  Woody they won’t investigate.” Woody, who is grey  and sandy coloured with a  white chest,  is worth £200.   and Ms Foster suspects the  man in the people carrier  drove past, saw him, and  decided to take him. She  said that Woody disappeared on the evening of  Monday, June 1.

“We want him back. He is  a healthy cat and beautiful  and he and Harley were  very close and now Harley  keeps walking around meowing,” she said.  “I am really upset and I can’t sleep  at night.”

Alyn Potbury, homing officer of the East Devon  branch of Cats Protection,  said: “We don’t often hear  about cats being stolen but  it does happen.”

But Margaret Cooksey, of  Cats Protection Exeter,  said: “It is not that easy to  steal someone’s cat. In 30  years I have never had a  case of any cat being stolen.   Most who go missing turn  up or have sadly been in  a  road accident.”

Anyone with information  should call Ms Foster on  07954 601 575.