A heartbroken pet owner has been left in bits after the rose bush containing her late cat’s ashes mysteriously vanished from outside her home.
Gutted, Laura Morgan says losing the memorial planter dedicated to her beloved moggy, Dragon, 14, felt like “losing her all over again”.
The 42-year-old was devastated when Dragon passed away in March 2023.
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She lovingly planted the rose bush in her memory, placing it by her front door so she could see it every time she came and went.
But last week, the user experience worker was left “shattered” when she stepped outside and realised the treasured planter had disappeared.
“When I realised it was gone, I was devastated,” Laura, from Penge, South East London, told Need To Know.
“I was running up and down the street in tears, looking in people’s gardens.
“It was like losing her all over again.
“I’m trying to console myself by saying someone who likes plants probably saw it and thought it needed a home.
“It was a part of her and a way to keep that memory alive.
“I put the plant at the front of the house so she was under my window when I was working from home, and every time I got home or left, I’d always look at the bush.
“And I’d talk to her.”
Laura adopted Dragon while living in China in 2009, later bringing her back to the UK.
She said: “I fell in love with her because she had big eyes and was high energy.
“I was determined to bring her home with me.
“We had such a close bond.
“She was my little shadow. I’d talk to her, and she followed me from room to room.
“It was so difficult when she died, and I was in survival mode for about a month.
“She was put to sleep at home because she didn’t like the vets, and I didn’t want that to be her last memory.
“I kept her ashes in the living room for around three months, then I mixed them into the soil.
“I had a wake for her, and the plant was a way to honour her.
“There’s a symbolism attached to the bush, and it was a way of processing my grief.
“I just want my cat’s ashes back.”
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