Woman sets up mobile vet after pet cat put down by mistake

Linda Joyce-Jones says her cat Rosa used to follow her everywhere

When Linda Joyce-Jones had to have her cat put down she was heartbroken.

But upon finding out her beloved pet Rosa may have been euthanised unnecessarily, her world fell apart and she tried to take her own life.

Now the 59-year-old wants to make sure no other pet owner has to go through the same pain.

She has set up an independent mobile vet service and re-mortgaged her own home to fund it.

"I adopted Rosa in 2011 after she'd been abandoned by her previous owners," said Linda, a former NHS health care assistant from north Wales.

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"She'd also been abused, possibly even sexually.

"As a result it took me two years to gain her trust, she was totally shut down and fearful around people.

"But eventually she became so loving and clingy - she'd follow me everywhere and would even come on walks with me around my village."

However, in early 2018, Rosa was diagnosed with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and Linda was told her constant companion would have to be euthanised.

"It put the fear of God into me, but after reading about FIV I learned it needn't be a death sentence and that cats who have it can lead fairly normal lives if cared for properly," she said.

Rosa was rescued from a life of abuse and spent years learning to trust Linda

Rosa managed to live for several more months, until she had an operation on her mouth that required her taking steroids.

"But you can't give steroids to a cat with FIV, so I had to make the awful decision to let Rosa go."

Linda said she later found out, having obtaining her pet's clinical notes, that there was a chance Rosa may never have had FIV in the first place.

"Rosa should have undergone two tests before she was diagnosed - a simple in-house blood test and another where the blood samples are sent off to an external laboratory for screening.

"That second test, which would have confirmed her condition, was never ordered though.

"It made me feel like I'd failed to protect Rosa, that I'd betrayed her - effectively I might as well have killed her myself."

Consumed with grief, Linda said she tried to take her own life.

"One day in early 2019 I walked to a spot near my home that I regularly used to visit with Rosa and I tried to end things," said Linda.

"I wanted a positive to come out of what me and Rosa went through," says Linda, pictured with her mobile veterinary vehicle

"What I didn't know was that my other cat called Gracie had followed me there and her meowing snapped me out of it."

Instead, Linda decided to dedicate herself to making sure other pet owners would not have to go through the same ordeal.

Having subsequently moved to Anglesey, she came up with the idea to set up her own independent mobile vet practice.

"I wanted a positive to come out of what me and Rosa went through," said Linda, who previously led a successful push to ban the use of wild animals at circuses in Wales.

Her mobile vet service is set to launch at the end of this month.

"I want to make it clear that this is not an individual vet bashing exercise," she said.

"What I'm opposing is the industry increasingly becoming a cost-driven conveyor belt wherein animals are treated as commodities, little more than revenue generators.

"I don't want the loss of Rosa to have been in vain," says Linda

"And so are the staff themselves - they're being overworked and put under pressure - that's why I believe Rosa's case was mishandled.

"Rosa was failed by the system and so were those who treated her.

"That's why I never took out legal action over what happened because I would have had to name the vets involved and I didn't feel that was fair."

Linda said her new venture would have a different approach to both pets and their owners.

"The mobile unit will have one vet and one veterinary nurse and will be able to treat sick animals in their own homes, thereby alleviating the stress of a visit to the surgery.

"We're also working with a small animal practice in Conwy who will do any diagnosis and blood work for us."

She said compassion was key in what she hoped to achieve.

"It's about treating pets as family members, not pound signs.

"This is my gift to the community and, with the cost of living crisis seeing more and more sick animals being dumped at an alarming rate, it's needed now more than ever.

"I don't want the loss of Rosa to have been in vain, I want to turn it into something good."

If you are affected by any of the issues in this article you can find details of organisations that can help via the BBC Action Line.