Tom Watkins - The Real Pet Detective: True Tales of Pets Lost and Found

Tom Watkins with Ruth Kelly

---

THE REAL PET DETECTIVE

True Tales of Pets Lost and Found

UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia

India | New Zealand | South Africa

Viking is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com

First published 2017

Copyright Tom Watkins and Ruth Kelly, 2017

The moral right of the authors has been asserted

Cover photos Shutterstock

ISBN: 978-0-241-97927-3

The mist started to seep through the woods as we searched the undergrowth.

Any sign of him? I radioed through on my walkie-talkie.

Nothing. Over, crackled the reply.

My heart sank. Wed been searching for hours but still nothing.

We moved forward in an orderly line, one step at a time, sweeping the undergrowth for any sign of life. Bourne Woods in Frensham, Surrey, isnt somewhere you would want to get lost.

I could only imagine how Cody must be feeling. Terrified. Alone. I just prayed he was still alive after a night in the cold and the rain.

The rotting leaves squelched under my boots. The brambles clawed at my trouser legs. I blew into my cupped hands to keep them warm, the hot air rising into the January cold as puffs of steam.

Torches, everyone! Over. I gestured to Liam, M and Olivia, who were spaced fifty yards apart from each other.

We switched them on at the same time, their beams cutting through the gloom like lightsabers.

Wed searched three square miles but still had five to comb through before nightfall. The deeper into the forest we ventured, the darker, the more sinister and eerie it became. Luckily everyone was wearing luminous jackets or we would have lost one another.

Stay in formation. Over. I reminded everyone to keep the line strong.

Suddenly, the ground dropped away beneath me. I lost my footing and slid uncontrollably into a ditch. I reached out my hand to break my fall, cutting it on the razor sharp brambles. I yelped with pain.

Tom, are you okay? Liam cried.

He peered over the ridge and I stared up at him. I was plastered with mud and up to my knees in ditch water. All part of the job. I smeared the grime onto my trousers. I didnt have time to worry about a few grazes.

As I scrambled back onto dry land, my torch caught something next to my boot. I crouched to get a better look, pulling away ferns and branches. My heart leaped.

Ive found something! I shouted, over the walkie-talkie, to Olivia and M.

Receiving. Were on our way!

Five minutes later I had my team surrounding the piece of evidence.

No doubt about it, its a print, M confirmed.

Looks like he came this way, I chipped in.

Cody had been through the ditch at some point in the last twelve hours. We searched the immediate area for more signs. We just needed another print to point us in the right direction.

Anything? I called hopefully.

The rains washed it all away! Disheartened, Liam prodded the mushy earth with a stick.

He was right: last nights heavy downpour was making our search even more challenging.

I pulled out the Ordnance Survey map and rested it on the trunk of a fallen tree. It must have been hit by lightning, I thought, judging by the burn marks lacerating the trunk. It was a huge old thing, coated with moss and fungi, its roots splayed like the tentacles of an octopus.

Everyone leaned in, alert and ready to plot our next move. Where we searched next would be vital to Codys survival. We had a lot of area to cover and limited boots on the ground to do it before darkness set in.

So we know hes heading this way, I said, drawing my finger along the map.

A splatter of rain hit my forehead and ran down my face. As soon as I wiped it away, another arrived. Pretty soon the drops were ricocheting off the map onto our jackets.

A rainstorm was the last thing we needed. It would wash away any remaining evidence, and if Cody was trapped or injured it would increase the risk of him catching hypothermia.

I shuddered as I zipped up my coat to my neck. Quick, lets all get in line again and start working our way towards the clearing, I instructed, pointing into the distance.

As we fought our way through the rain and the brambles I had an unnerving feeling that something terrible had happened to Cody. Maybe someone had snatched him. He was only young he wouldnt stand a chance.

The crackle of the radio sliced through my thoughts.

Tom, Ive found something! It was Olivias voice and she sounded worried.

I bounded across the woods, weaving through the bracken, ducking and diving over and under fallen branches. My boots were slipping and sliding across the ground.

M and Liam were already there, crowding around. I could tell by their worried faces that it was bad news.

I found this, Olivia said, pointing to the red object.

I picked it up and held it between my thumb and forefinger. It was Codys collar.

Somehow the two-year-old black and white collie cross had lost it. I pointed my torch into the gloom, wondering how we were going to find him.

Hi, my names Tom Watkins, and Im a pet detective.

I find missing pets for a living, anything from a cat or a budgerigar to a dog or a tortoise. No animal is too small or too big for me to track down and rescue. I do it because I love animals and because I want to help people.

Pets arent just animals: to many families, theyre like children, and what wouldnt you do to see your child returned home safely?

I wasnt always a pet detective. I used to be a copper. I now apply the skills I learned in the police force to finding missing and stolen animals. I run Europes largest, and most successful, pet detective agency. I have fifteen staff, a fleet of animal search response vehicles or pet-mobiles, as I like to call them a twenty-four-hour missing-pet rescue hotline, up to a hundred lost-pet cases added to my online database each day by owners needing my help. Ive reunited thousands of pets with their owners through my detective skills. No fewer than 150,000 have registered a lost or found pet on my website over the years.

I use all sorts of equipment on my searches, anything from thermal-imaging cameras (to spot cats hiding in dark sheds and garages) and walkie-talkies to Dictaphones (to record the sound of the owners voice). My detective methods are just as colourful and unusual: Ive flown a plane with a banner over Surrey to help find a missing terrier and Ive filmed a Crimewatch-style reconstruction of a dog-napping to prompt witnesses to come forward.

But it didnt start off like that. Far from it. In the beginning I didnt even have a magnifying glass, just a can of dog food and a map of Wolverhampton.

It was April 1999 and I was feeling down in the dumps. Id left the police force with no clue about what I wanted to do with my life. One night I was sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea and turned on the radio to the local station Beacon FM. Id been a regular listener since Id won one of their phone-in competitions a couple of years back.