A PET owner is heartbroken after her elderly, but seemingly healthy, cat was put down apparently without her knowledge by a Saltcoats vet.

Mary Deacon’s cat Tish went missing from her home in Saltcoats and was handed in by a member of the public to Oaks Vets a few hours later. But despite Mary’s claims that her pet was in good health, the 21-year-old Persian was put to sleep.

Mary is also furious that staff at Oaks failed to contact her to let her know that they had her cat and that they intended to have her euthanised. Tish was not micro-chipped but Mary insists that the vets should have known the distinctive-looking Persian because they had treated her for more than two decades and regularly groomed her coat.

Mary told the Herald: “I’m really, really angry and upset. You would have thought they would have recognised her.

“She would have died in a strange place without anyone with her. It’s terrible. To live for 21-and-a-half years and to come to that end is very distressing. I’m heartbroken.”

According to neighbours, Tish was lifted from Mary’s garden in McGillivray Avenue during the afternoon of Monday, October 9. A woman found the old Persian later on at The Glebe and took her to Oaks.

Mary said: “She was very old and her coat was very bedraggled but she was in good health for her age. The vets said they thought she had kidney disease because she was meowing and distressed and all hunched in the cage. But she would have been frightened.

“They should have at least left her until the morning but they didn’t even give her a chance. I’ve told them I’m taking this further because I’m not happy. It won’t bring my cat back but it might stop it happening to someone else.”

Oaks Vets declined to comment due to patient confidentiality.