Sudbury cat missing for five years turns up two miles away

Kat Owen had an emotional reunion with Fred after his five-year absence

A cat that disappeared from his home five years ago has turned up safe and well - two miles down the road.

Owner Kat Owen was left devastated after ginger tom Fred left his home in Sudbury, Suffolk, in 2019.

He was reunited with Ms Owen after the local vet got in touch when his microchip was scanned.

Ms Owen has decided to allow Fred to stay with the elderly man who has been feeding him - as long as she can visit, she said.

Fred had been with the family for about three years when he went missing

She told BBC Radio Suffolk: "We'd moved to Sudbury from Colchester, we'd been here six months and, one night, he went out and just didn't come home.

"We fliered, we postered, we walked round the street like lunatics shouting his name."

She said his absence was difficult for the family to cope with.

"There was a lot of ugly crying, I couldn't even walk past a ginger cat without checking it was Fred for about two years.

"I had this dream that maybe a little old lady had taken him in and not let him out again, and he was living his dream around the corner."

Fred had been taken to Ardmore Vets in Sudbury for a health check, where his microchip was scanned

Ms Owen said the family received a call "from a Sudbury number" while on holiday in Kenya.

She said the cat had been handed in to Ardmore Vets, who confirmed he was alive and well.

She was told Fred had been taken in as a stray six months before but had lost his fur and was starving. He had been taken to the vets for a check up.

Only Fred knows where he was living before the man took him in six months ago

Ms Owen said that after an emotional reunion, she made the difficult decision to allow the man to keep Fred, as the two had bonded.

"You could see it in his eyes," she said, "he was just in love with the cat. He's an elderly gentleman who lives on his own, no wife, no children.

"You have to do what's right, long term for everyone, rather than be selfish about it".