Simba prefers his creature comforts

FOOTSORE Simba is back home with his family – after going walkabout in Felixstowe.The rough coat Collie – which looks like TV star Lassie – may share his name with the hero of the Lion King, but it was a brick and concrete jungle he found himself wandering in.

By Richard Cornwell

FOOTSORE Simba is back home with his family – after going walkabout in Felixstowe.

The rough coat Collie – which looks like TV star Lassie – may share his name with the hero of the Lion King, but it was a brick and concrete jungle he found himself wandering in.

For when Simba escaped from his home in Old Felixstowe after the wind blew down fencing panels in the garden, he quickly became lost in unfamiliar streets.

He wandered and wandered, walking three miles down to the Port of Felixstowe, then back onto the Cavendish Park estate.

It left his owners Paul and Belinda Stephenson frantic with worry as they went out searching the streets for him.

"After we heard he had been seen at the port, someone else rang to say he had been spotted near the Safeway store," said Mr Stephenson, of Wentworth Drive.

"I went up there and spent all day Tuesday looking for him, but didn't find him. Then I spoke to someone who told me about a local man who they knew and owned three collies."

Mr Stephenson managed to track down the collie owner – and there he found sable and white coloured Simba, safe and well.

"Someone had found Simba and taken him to this man because they thought he might be one of his dogs, and he had held onto him for the day and was trying to find out who owned it," added Mr Stephenson.

Mrs Stephenson said the family was thrilled to have Simba home safe and well.

"I cannot begin to tell you how absolutely relieved and happy we are," she said.