Tetbury cat owner 'blown away' by pet's mystery return

Jack went missing after his owners moved house more than two years ago

A cat owner has expressed her shock after her beloved pet returned home more than two years after it went missing.

Alexandra Rose's cat, Jack, went missing in 2021 after she and her husband moved house within Tetbury.

After assuming Jack was dead Alexandra said she was "blown away" to get a phone call on Sunday, informing her he was in Burford.

He is now back home with his new companion, Ted.

Jack's owners assumed he had "been killed or knocked over" and stopped looking for him after a year

Speaking to BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Alexandra said she had been keeping Jack in after moving house when he "got out by himself and completely vanished" one morning.

"We looked everywhere, put stuff on social media, we had fliers out. The Tetbury people were wonderful, everybody looked out for a little black cat but nothing happened."

Alexandra assumed that Jack "had probably been killed or knocked over", but she received a phone call from a cat rescue centre.

"We never expected to see him again and then, on Sunday afternoon, we got a phone call from Burford Blue Cross saying that he had been handed in with a companion cat, who he was bonded to." She said.

"Neither of them were in a terribly good condition and their owner had sadly died.

Microchipped

"The cats had been handed in by a relative and [Burford Blue Cross] phoned because the cat was microchipped."

Alexandra has urged pet owners to microchip their cats as it is "the only way they'd have ever found us again".

After years without Jack, she had not expected to see him again, and had no idea how to react.

"It was actually quite shocking," Alexandra explained.

"I always thought that if he should come home, I'd be absolutely thrilled and dancing about and jumping up and down but when the news came in I was so shocked."

Jack is now back home with his companion cat, Ted, in Tetbury.

Ted is "very timid" and has been hiding away

Unfortunately, Jack has a form of cat flu, but has received veterinary treatment and is on medicine.

"I suspect he probably does [know he's home] because he's settled in remarkably quickly," Alexandra said.

"He likes to sit on my husband's knee and purrs.

"Ted is a young cat, he's only two years old and he's very timid and spends a lot of time hiding under a cupboard. He'll come round in his own time."