Free State - The pet cheetah of a Free State farming couple is missing in the Wesselsbron area, the Volksblad newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Her owners Dr Japie Pienaar and his wife Magda of the farm Brakfontein had raised the cheetah named Jolie, 4, with four other cats and a dog on the farm since she was a cub.
The animal was named after American actress Angelina Jolie.
The newspaper reported that a concerned Magda Pienaar was urging the farmers in the region, who know the cat, not to shoot the cheetah when they saw it.
It was believed that Jolie escaped after Japie Piennaar returned from a house call in the Bultfontein area on Monday night.
A search was started for the cheetah after she did not return on Tuesday morning. In the past when she managed to get out she would always return to the Pienaars.
The couple had to get permission from all their neighbours when they bought Jolie at a game auction about four years ago.
The report said that since Tuesday they phoned all the neighbours to be on the look out for Jolie, who was very tame but skittish to strangers.
“We are concerned about her. If a cheetah was seen here in the area it would definitely be her…please do not shoot,” the newspaper quoted Magda Pienaar.
She urged anybody seeing the cheetah to phone the Pienaars at Wesselsbron with the news. - Sapa