A PET detective, featured on ITV’s This Morning programme for having the world’s first ever cat-detection dog, has been searching for ‘Ozzy’, a handsome grey and white cat who has been missing from his Alton home since July 2.

Life has not been easy for four-year-old Ozzy, who disappeared only 24 hours after he was re-homed with an Alton couple.

A tearful Melanie Bradley, who lives in Walton-on-Thames, told the Herald how distressed she was for after rescuing Ozzy from his “cruel first owner” she has now found the couple he was re-homed with don’t want him back and aren’t going to look for him.

“So no-one will be looking out for him,” she said.

Melanie explained that, as a mother with two very young children and three cats of her own, she is finding it difficult to spend the time looking for Ozzy in Alton, although she has spent many hours conducting a search, and has put up posters asking people to call if they have seen him.

“He was re-homed to a house in Gilmore Gardens and there have been sightings of him in Manor Road and Anstey Lane, but probably no-one knew he was lost,” said Melanie, who first took Ozzy in when “he arrived at my back-door dripping blood from an injury in his back paw”.

“He belonged to my next-door-neighbour, who didn’t want him, so I took Ozzy to the vet and paid £100 for his treatment and nursed him until he was better. But he hadn’t been castrated or microchipped so the charity Here For Cats agreed to do this for him and he had his operation on June 27.

“As I have three cats I couldn’t keep him and asked the charity to re-home him and they told me a couple from Alton wanted him,” said Melanie. “They picked up Ozzy on July 1 with the instructions he was to be kept indoors for three weeks until he had recovered from his operation.

“Then I got a call from the charity saying that on the Sunday evening (July 2), Ozzy had escaped by jumping over the garden fence and he had left some spots of blood, so I am worried this might be the result of his operation not being properly healed.

“The people who had him went out and bought a kitten the next day and have asked the charity for their donation back.”

Desperate to step up the search, Melanie has since engaged pet detective Colin Butcher and his two-year-old tracker dog Molly – a cocker spaniel trained as the world’s first cat-detection dog by Medical Detection Dogs, the ground-breaking charity responsible for training cancer-detection dogs and Medical Alert Assistance Dogs for people with life-threatening conditions, such as diabetes.

On Monday, Melanie joined Colin and Molly, whose work in following the cat’s scent has led them to believe that he was heading over fields toward the Holybourne area.

Melanie is hoping someone has taken Ozzy in or might know where he is. If so, she is asking that they call her straight away on 07725 806785 and she will come and get him.

“If he is found I will take care of him at my house until a caring owner can be found for him,” she said.

“He is a lovely, loving cat, so good with my young children but doesn’t like dogs. Because of all he has been through he is street wise but very nervous.”