A Thanet hero who can most often be seen crawling through undergrowth, searching streets and parks by torchlight and organising operations to find lost dogs will appear on The One Show tomorrow (May 9).
Laura Sullivan, from Margate, heads up the Missing Dogs and Strays in Thanet group and is the go-to person for people trying to find their dogs – and other pets – or rescue an animal in trouble.
Most recently she helped with the search for German Shepherd Bear who managed to get out of a house in Margate and was eventually picked up by the RNLI from the sea near Botany Bay.
But the tenacious animal-lover has also been instrumental in the search for Westie Trudy who has been missing for 12 weeks and miniature poodle Teddy who had been living by rail tracks after going missing for more than a month, as well as hundreds of other missing pets.
Laura, who was named one of The Isle of Thanet News’ local heroes in 2020, even spent 45 days on a sit out to trapping one missing dog!
She was put forward for The One Show’s ‘big thank you’ section by Trudy’s owner Becki Jackson.
Trudy is a 10 year old Westie, who went missing in February while Becki and family were on holiday
Trudy got out of her collar and escaped a family member’s garden in Charing Crescent Westgate.
Despite trying to get her for nearly 3 hours Trudy managed to get across the Canterbury Road, run along to Hengist Road and then up Sea Road where she was last seen on the pavement, cliff side running passed where the last field is for the Golf Course.
There have been no sightings since but Laura has organised searches and lost posters and regularly checks in with Becki to see how she is.
Becki said: “I put Laura forward for The One Show a few weeks back and they phoned me about half an hour later to say they had never had a pet one (big thank you) on the show before.
“They took all the information and then said they had to pitch it to the BBC and apparently they loved it.
“After that it was all very last minute.”
On Tuesday Becki and Laura travelled to Bristol to film for the section which includes a surprise for Laura that can’t be revealed before the show screens.
Becki said: “She had a lovely surprise and the big thank you was in appreciation and recognition for all the hard work she does to help people with missing dogs and other animals.
“There was also filming in Minnis Bay last night with her friends and family and lots of people whose dogs she has helped to find such as Teddy who had been living by the railway line. There were success stories and also ones where the dogs sadly were not found alive but all of the people were talking about what Laura had done for them.
“She did a lot for me with Trudy and although we still have not got Trudy home, Laura still checks in on me and she doesn’t have to do that.
“She would not accept anything from me and I wanted her to be recognised for how brilliant she is.”
Becki says show bosses told her Laura’s reaction to the surprise was one of the best they have had. She added: “She was literally gobsmacked, just blown away.”
Laura’s big thank you with One Show presenter Richie Anderson, can be seen on BBC One at 7pm tomorrow.
Anyone with information of the whereabouts of Trudy is asked to contact 07718229188 immediately.
