Wandering cat turns up after more than two years

Skippy the cat is back home after a two and a half year adventure

A mischievous cat who went missing from his Wrexham home has been found - nearly three years later.

Adventurous Skippy threw his owners into a panic when he disappeared from his home in Llay.

They had given up hope only for him to turn up sleeping in a stranger's car in Mold, nine miles away.

The ginger tom and his owners were reunited, thanks to his microchip.

Jack and Joyce Povey were bemused when a vet phoned to say Skippy had been found and were sure it was a case of mistaken identity.

But when they drove to pick him up there was no mistaking the huge moggie, who looks rather like Garfield the cartoon cat.

Now they are getting to know one another all over again, although Skippy remains under house arrest for the moment.

Mrs Povey, 69, a retired chocolate factory worker, said: "Skippy just went out one day and did not come back.

"We did everything we could. We looked for him and friends kept an eye out for him. He was not the sort of cat you would miss - he was very pretty, ginger with long hair.

"When we heard nothing we thought he must have had an accident or something, that he had gone out and been run over.

"To be honest, we had given him up for dead. We missed him and still talked about him because he was such a nice cat."

Mistaken identity

When the couple went to Mold to pick him up, Skippy recognised them straight away.

"He's settling down well but he's not happy that we don't let him out yet, in case he disappears," said Mrs Povey.

She added that their experienced showed how important it is that cats are microchipped.

"If we had not had it done, then we would never have had him back. It clearly works."