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Worried journalists seek missing moggie

Journalists at a weekly paper in Kent are frantically searching for a key member of their newsroom team who has gone missing.

For the past two years, staff at the Sheerness Times Guardian have provided an adoptive home to a ginger cat they have named Wilbur.

He calls by the paper’s office most days and enjoys the occasional saucer of milk before settling down for a snooze beside the warm space created by the newsdesk’s computer monitors.

Ocassionally, he has even been known to stretch himself across reporters’ keyboards as they struggle to meet their deadlines.

However yesterday there was concern after plaintive miaiowing sounds were heard from an empty former Woolworth’s store, next to the Times Guardian office.

A quick phone call to the site owner’s office resulted in a search of the old shop for Wilbur but there was no sign of him – or of any other locked-in animals.

Wilbur, pictured above left, has become such a regular visitor that he also has his own place at one end of the front desk counter where he greets customers. Even KM Group chairman Geraldine Allinson asks after him during her visits to the office.

“It would be a cat-astrophe if anything happened to him,” said one of the Sheerness team.

  • Has your newsroom adopted a visiting pet? Let us know at [email protected].

    Comments

    hilary (28/10/2009 12:17:26)
    Many newsrooms these days are a couple of floors up in the middle of industrial estates miles from the nearest moggy. This tale proves that the Sheerness Guardian is at least on the ground floor in touch with its patch. Hope Wilbur turns up.

    David Thomsett Palmer (29/10/2009 12:56:31)
    All this ‘cat flap’ about the missing moggie is just a different take on
    the old ‘cat-stuck-up-a-lamp post story’ and reflects the desperate times
    in which media folk live, with staff having to resort to inventing
    ‘news’to avoid becoming victims of the paper cuts afflicting so many local
    titles across the country.
    This ‘Wilbur’ piece is too close to the standby that raises its furry head EVERY TIME there IS no news and it epitomises the coverage many people associate with local papers that have nothing of substance to offer their readers.
    It’s a cat deserting a sinking ship, in my not-at-all humble opinion.
    Here’s my advice to Sheerness ‘Guardian’ reporters: say nothing when
    you find Wilbur asleep in a dark corner in the empty ad sales section. Take him to the nearest tree (Sevenoaks?), maroon him on the top branch, then call the local fire brigade to the rescue – and use your contacts to coordinate mass media coverage of the plucky runaway who’s been discovered safe and sound, miles from home.
    Print a double page feature with glossy pics in ‘The Guardian’,praising the courage and fortitude of all involved – especially Wilbur – and centre the piece on man’s heartwarming relationship with animals (Subs (if you’re still there) – choose photos VERY carefully when the story rolls: an obscenity trial is the last thing any paper needs). Last panel must be a soft focus shot of Wilbur stretched out asleep on a bank of back copies of the ‘Sheerness Guardian’, whose entire staff (three plus part time receptionist)is looking adoringly on. The caption? ‘CAT: A TONIC’
    This kind of ‘feelgood fact/or fiction’ is what people want: it worked for the Texan ‘not air balloon’ family and where our transatlantic brethren go, we always follow.
    It’s also the ticket to major celebrity – and I should know: I persuaded my owner to stage something similar and I was given my own column; the payola, plaudits, industry awards and advertising revenue POURED in and I rescued a paper that was stuck in the gutter and not climbing anywhere.
    It was like winning the Lotto – and it did change my nine lives: I’d
    be wearing furs if I hadn’t been born in them and I eat caviar whenever I want to
    (OK,it’s cod roe from Waitrose, but most cats only ever aspire to
    this and only get it at Christmas). I’ve also got a paw-poster bed – and believe me, lady cats have every hope of getting there, any day of the year.
    Want to know where you can get hold of me? Not at the top of a lamp post or tree, that’s for sure. Watch this space……
    That’s all fur now!
    New Kit on the Blog
    Tomorrow’s Headline – Reporter shoots self in foot while writing up story about NHS under-funding.
    [email protected]