A STOWAWAY cat that ended up 30 miles away from home has been reunited with her owners after nearly two months apart.

Kate and Colin Daines were gutted when their three-year-old cat Mitzi never came back home on December 20.

But the couple, who live in South Street, Manningtree, received a phone call nearly two months later from a woman from Stowmarket, in Suffolk, telling them she found Mitzi in her garden.

Kate, 61, said Mitzi was very much an outdoor cat, but on the day she did not come home they called their neighbours and heard nothing.

She then left the cat flap open, called her vets and Hiskey’s Cattery and appealed for information through local Facebook pages.

As Mitzi is microchipped and wears a collar, the couple thought she would be returned home or she could be traced through - but as the weeks went on they still heard nothing.

Kate said: “I gave up hope sooner than my husband as I thought she was dead, but he still kept hoping she would be found.”

As time went on the couple had to try and get on with their lives and they flew to Paris last weekend to celebrate their ruby wedding anniversary.

But on their return home they had a voicemail on their answer machine from a woman called Lizzie who said she found Mitzi in her garden about 30 miles away in Stowmarket.

Kate said: “Mitzi had been in Lizzie’s garden for weeks and because she was new to the area she thought the cat belonged to a neighbour.

“She went on holiday for a week and when she came home the cat was still in her garden and looked very thin, so she thought it was not a stray or belonged to her neighbours and was missing.”

Gazette:

That's a happy stare from Mitzi...honestly.

After hearing the voicemail from Lizzie, who volunteers at Last Hope Rescue Centre, they could not believe Mitzi was found so far away from Manningtree.

Kate said: “It was the most amazing news to come home to after our anniversary celebrations in Paris - it was the coming moment of the weekend.

“We fetched her on Monday night and when we arrived at Lizzie’s we called Mitzi’s name and the moment she heard our voices she ran down the stairs to us and climbed straight into our travel cage and settled down.

“I had my hand in the cage the whole of the drive home and Mitzi looked so content and nuzzled my arm.”

The couple thanked Lizzie and assumed Mitzi was a stowaway who jumped into someone’s van or lorry.

Kate said: “The only assumption we can make is that she has always been a nosey cat and has got into builders’ vans when we’ve had them round.

“It was just before Christmas when we lost her and we think she could have got into a delivery van and the driver didn’t realise.

"We’ll never know how she end up so far away from home, but maybe she just thought it was a nice place to set up camp for a few months.”