By Bridie Adams

A FAMILY from Hereford say they have been victims of malicious phone calls and messages threatening to harm their missing cat.

Gary Buckley, from Lower Bullingham in Hereford, and his family have been searching for their all-black cat Toto since February 27 and have gone to extreme lengths in attempt to track him down.

But Mr Buckley and his wife told the Hereford Times they have received cruel calls and messages from pranksters claiming to have killed their cat, or threatening to kill their cat if the couple did not hand over large sums of money. They say they have received prank calls from children “meowing” down the phone and scam calls from people claiming to be psychic.

The most recent call was from a man who told Mr Buckley he was planning to “cook Toto up for tea”.

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“It is distressing enough to have lost our pet, and these disgusting scam calls make it even worse. Just be kind. We don’t really have a family apart from each other and our daughter. Our world is small, and Toto is a big part of our world, so a big part of our world is missing,” said the couple.

Toto has been reported to police as stolen, but ex-military personnel Mr and Mrs Buckley have taken matters into their own hands and looked for Toto all over Hereford and even further afield, having driven as far as six hours away to try and find their 12-year-old daughter’s beloved pet.

“We’re treating it as an army mission,” said the couple. “We’ve drawn up a thorough map of all the houses in our area, and we tick them off when we’ve spoken to them or posted a flyer. We don’t know how much longer we can put up with the constant abuse, but we don’t want to give up on Toto.”