Cat missing for SIX years reunited with owners by chance

By Athena Stavrou via SWNS

A cat that has been missing for six years has finally been reunited with his owners after being presumed dead.

The black cat, named Jimi Hendrix, is back with his family after a rescue charity scanned his microchip and used Facebook to reunite them.

Jimi's owner, Joanna Farmer, presumed he had died many years ago, after he escaped from a friend's open window in Torquay, Devon, England in August 2016.

Joanna and her husband Nik searched all over for Jimi but had no luck, until now.

Eventually, the couple moved away from Torquay and now live in Brixham, Devon, with their kitten and three children aged six, four and two - none of whom had ever met Jimi.

"I bought Jimi as a kitten when I lived in Southend in Essex," Joanna said.

"I wasn't actually a big fan of cats before him, but his nature was just so lovely we decided to get another one.

"Jimi was so affectionate, he'd be sitting on me all the time. When I was pregnant he'd sit on my bump, and when I had my son they were best friends - he really looked after my little boy.

"In the summer of 2016 my mum fell ill so we had to move in with her temporarily, but she had a dog so I had to give Jimi and his brother Frankie to a friend for a little while.

"He saw an open window in her bathroom and that was it, he was gone. It was horrible, absolutely heartbreaking.

"I literally had lost my best friend. We searched everywhere for him, there were even a few sightings but they never turned out to be him.

"We went back to our old house to see if he was there, but in the end there was nothing more I could do.

"He was microchipped and I'd flagged him as missing, so I knew if he was found I'd know but he never was so that was it, until Friday."

The six year search for Jimi only concluded due to a chance call to a Torquay-based charity, Hector's House Cat Rescue.

A woman had noticed a cat regularly sleeping on her doormat outside her house in Babbacome, Devon, on her security camera whilst she lived away.

She notified the charity, who went to find the stray cat on Friday, October 14.

At first, Jimi was too wary to be caught, so volunteers decided to use a humane trap to catch him.

Once they had him in custody, they scanned his microchip and discovered he had been flagged as missing six years ago.

However, the details registered to his microchip were all out of date, so the charity posted an appeal to Facebook.

Zara Oldfield, from Hector's House Cat Rescue said: "It was amazing, within an hour we had Joanne contact us.

"She was stunned, absolutely stunned. She thought he was long dead.

"She lives 15 miles away from Torquay, so she came and saw him on Saturday morning.

"I recorded their meeting, because I'm curious to see if cats recognize their owners after so long.

"At first he didn't have a clue but I advised her to keep talking, as sound and voice is what cats respond to the most.

"After about four minutes, he gave a her a long look and then he started headbutting her hand - he knew who she was."

Since going back to his new home, Jimi has settled straight back in.

"I just couldn't believe it, my mouth literally dropped. It was like he hadn't been missing, he looked exactly the same," Joanna said.

"Circumstanced have changed of course, I have three children and a new kitten now, but he's been absolutely fine.

"He's been fine with the children and he lays on me like he used to, giving love and affection.

"He hasn't changed, he's just six years older. I'm still pinching myself, it's just incredible."

Now, Hector's House are calling for everyone to make sure their cats are microchipped - so they can be returned safely to their families if anything were to ever happen to them.

"If Jimi hadn't been microchipped, then he would still be out on the street and most likely would have never come home," Oldfield said.

"This is a lesson in why you should microchip your pets. People never think their cat is going to go missing until it happens to them."