Losing cat has broken my heart

But for admin assistant Maureen Shevlin, the search is a reality after her six-year-old pet O'Malley disappeared just days after disembarking from a flight from Ireland for a new life in the Capital.

Hoping that he hasn't tried to find his way back to their former home in County Mayo, she has been scouring the streets looking for him - but his deafness means she has had to spend her evenings shaking trees and rattling his box, in the hope of creating vibrations that will attract his attention.

Ms Shevlin, 47, first got O'Malley in 2005 when he was just a kitten, and flew him to join her when she moved from Edinburgh to Ireland in 2007.

Growing homesick, however, she decided to return to Edinburgh earlier this year, bringing O'Malley over a short time later.

But just four days after arriving, O'Malley failed to return to Ms Shevlin's Longstone home at the end of the day.

The admin assistant said: "I know it sounds sad, but I couldn't get him in that night, so I slept on the sofa and I slept there for about two weeks, in case I heard him."

The devoted owner has distributed 400 flyers around her neighbourhood, and has been out every night for three weeks searching for him.

"I went out and brought a laminator to make posters, I put flyers through doors. Because he's deaf, I was going about with his box, rattling it, and shaking trees - it has to be the vibration that he'd feel. Then I saw this woman looking at me and I thought 'That's enough, they think I'm a nutter'."

It's not the first time O'Malley has gone missing in Edinburgh. Several years ago he disappeared, but Ms Shevlin said that on that occasion his poor hearing was his saving grace, as the people who had taken him in handed him into the dog and cat home.

She said: "I phoned up the council because if he has been killed, they uplift dead bodies and he's not been found dead in the road. I phoned the cat and dog home, I phone everywhere once a week, because I've heard of a woman who got her cat back after a year.

"It's maybe a waste of time, but you never know.

"He's spoiled and he's pampered - he's a beautiful animal, and my heart's broken."

Scottish SPCA chief superintendent Mike Flynn said: "We are very sorry to hear that Ms Shevlin has lost her much-loved pet. We recommended that people microchip their pets."