Wendy Lloyd works for BBC Breakfast, and when she travelled to Ukraine on a mission to help displaced people, she didn’t expect to start doing animal rescue.
She couldn’t help but form an attachment to a three-legged cat, whose chances of surviving were so slim, the overrun shelter he was at hadn’t even named him. Wendy had found him high up in the mountains at the make-shift shelter, where a sole woman was taking care of 40-50 animals. As missiles flew overhead, a terrified Wendy held onto the cat, who seemed to be the only one not panicking. In that moment, Wendy decided to call him Rocket and bring him home to Birmingham with her.
When Wendy Lloyd happened upon a makeshift animal shelter in the mountains around Kyiv, she met Rocket, a three-legged cat. Rocket — who was named after the bombs pelting down around the city — was left with slim chances of survival. The woman running the makeshift cat sanctuary was in a small space with 40 to 50 lost, abandoned and injured cats.
… Wendy knew she had to get Rocket out of Ukraine and took him 1,600 miles to a new home, where the cat was fixed up by a vet. And now the three-legged cat is settled in his new home and has already started making friends with his new neighbors. Wendy says Rocket “doesn’t do cat things as such, he comes to the pub with me and has become a regular. It only took a few days for his personality to come out but he’s doing amazingly well.” Rocket feels right at home with his new owner – and the pair are even going on holiday together.
‘He’s driving with me to Greece this week for a holiday,’ she says.