Turkish the cat

A deaf cat has been reunited with his worried Stoke Newington owner - thanks to the power of social media.

It took just hours for kind-hearted users of the website Twitter to locate errant moggy Turkish, who disappeared from his Cazenove Road home last Saturday.

When his owner Jenny turned to her neighbour Robyn Pierce, head of social media for a Hoxton marketing agency, for help Ms Pierce knew where to turn.

“I took this lovely photo of Turkish on Saturday, but when I showed it to his owner she said he was lost,” said Ms Pierce.

“I knew that there are loads of N16 tweeters, like Stokey People and Nsixteen, so I started by tweeting them and the Cats Protection League.”

When she posted the picture on the site on Monday morning, Ms Pierce used hashtag #N16, which means anyone interested in the postcode could search for it. She also found a post by another using saying their friend had found a white cat in the area and was looking after it, three streets away in Forburg Road.

A few phone calls, and a couple of hours later, Turkish had been reunited with his relieved owner.

Ms Pierce said that the story is a great of example of how powerful new media, like Twitter, can be in local communities.

She said: “I wasn’t surprised that we found him because I am completely convinced about the power of Twitter as a community tool for information.

“There are so many people here who use it in Stoke Newington and across London. Now I can use the tale of Turkish to explain Twitter to people who don’t understand it.”

Turkish, who has run away a number of times, is now recovering from his ordeal at his owner’s parents’ house in the country.

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