A MISSING moggy last seen by his owners more than a year ago has been tracked down… a mammoth 117 miles from his home.

The curious cat named Toby was handed in by a worried resident to Paws Colchester Veterinary Centre in The Willows yesterday morning.

Cat-astrophe was averted as he was microchipped and within seconds veterinary staff were able to find the name, address and contact details on the family he belongs to.

They live in Ancaster, Lincolnshire, and have been looking for the intrepid explorer for a year but had given up hope of ever find him.

However, they are now heading to Colchester for an emotional reunion and take him back home.

Melissa Conquest, who is a veterinary nurse assistant at Paws, said it showed the importance of people getting their pets chipped.

“A lady brought him in because he kept coming into her garden,” she said.

“She was feeding him and suspected he might be a stray as he would regularly come up to her house.

“Luckily he was microchipped and we were able to scan him and found he was registered to a house in Lincolnshire.

“We contacted them and they were absolutely amazed.

“Toby is actually the cat of the son in the family who is autistic and we were told he is ecstatic they are going to be back together again.

“Now they are coming to collect him on Saturday.

“At the moment it is the law dogs have to be microchipped but not cats.

“Something we think is really important to get across is how crucial microchipping can be.

“This shows exactly why it should be done.

“It is so cheap - around £10 to £15 - and we can scan the chip and have the details up on the screen instantly.

“It would have been really difficult to find where Toby was from otherwise.”

Despite being homeless for a year, Toby is uninjured and a healthy weight and now set for a purr-fect reunion.

How he ended up in Colchester is still a mystery but it is thought he may have stowed away in the back of a vehicle making it way down the A1 and into Essex.

Melissa added: “He is a really good state of health.

“There are no injuries or marks on him and he is a decent weight.

“People must have been feeding him all along for him to be missing this long and be this well.

“But we have no idea how he got to be here.

“They do like jumping up into vehicles so we can only think he has somehow got into a van and only managed to get out near Colchester.”