A WOMAN has been left devastated after courier firm Evri lost her pet rat’s ashes, which she had sent off to be made into a cuddly toy.
Jaimie Popplewell, from Hull, Yorkshire, wanted a souvenir of her beloved rodent Pumpkin after she succumbed to pneumonia in January.
Jaimie, 21, told the Hull Daily Mail that she was heartbroken by the loss.
The pet owner’s disturbance even set up a little shrine to Pumpkin, complete with a framed picture and a memorial candle.
She then posted off the precious cargo of the newly-cremated Pumpkin to a small business that she found on Etsy that would place the ashes inside a crocheted plushie.
However, on the toy’s return journey, the issues began to mount up.
Jaimie explained: “I missed his cuddles, so looked on Etsy and found a seller who could make me a custom crocheted rat that looked like Pumpkin.
“I wanted to have a bit of Pumpkin in there so asked the seller if I could send her his ashes to put inside, and she agreed, even though she had never done it before.
“The ashes arrived safely and my order was completed and sent back, but when the delivery date came around, Evri said the parcel was too big and the delivery would be rescheduled.”
Evri confirmed that the item was too big to fit through his letterbox and had to be rescheduled, but that has since gone missing.
After a series of emails, Jaimie was offered compensation but said that it doesn’t make up the loss of her treasured pet.
She said: “I knew something was very wrong when it first couldn’t be delivered.
“I don’t want money back, it’s sentimental and I can’t put a price on that, it feels wrong.
“I miss Pumpkin so much and so does his brother. It’s been eating me up ever since and I’m heartbroken it’s been lost.”
A spokesperson for Evri said: “Unfortunately this parcel containing the ashes of a pet rat in a crocheted animal is currently missing and we are continuing to search for it.
“However, we have spoken to the sender to reiterate that ashes are prohibited from being sent through our network and that they also incorrectly chose our ‘postable’ service which is only for large letters that can go through a standard letterbox – this item was clearly too big for this service.
“We apologize to Ms Popplewell.”
Since then, Jaimie has received an email saying that her parcel had been “officially lost in transit”.