"It had rained heavily, and there I was in my rubber boots and anorak calling out 'Schwarzer, Charlie a stray I adopted when he was a kitten and who was quite attached to Schwarzer, shot on to the road.

He stopped for a minute, looked back at me with a look that said "Hold on," and vanished. "When he did not return after a day, my heart almost broke a I thought that he too was lost.

The next evening, I ran out when I heard the dogs barking and was just in time to see a cat that was trying to get in through the gate being chased away. But when I rushed out, there was no sign of it. Then I heard Charlie meowing in an adjacent, vacant house.

As I went in, there was Schwarzer: dirty, his fur bedraggle, thin to the bones, sick and exhausted, trying to get on his feet. An right behind him was Charlie, nudging him, prodding him to take yet another step - towards home.

After a few steps, Schwarzer, too exhausted to move, would sink to the ground again, and Charlie would nudge him once more, pushing him to move. It was really an incredible sight! Charlie had found Schwarzer and had brought him back home.

Schwarzer regained his strength after a few months. But if it wasn't for Charlie who went out to find him and guide him patiently back home, I would have lost Schwarzer for ever.