Missing moggie Chubbs is found – after 10 years
A CAT-LOVER has been reunited with her missing pet – 10 years after she last saw it and 250 miles away from home.
Donna Gallacher’s beloved British shorthair-cross Chubbs – who she’d reared from a kitten – disappeared from her home in Weymouth, Dorset, in 2012.
Since then Donna, 40, has worked tirelessly to track down Chubbs – putting ads in local papers, giving out flyers and regularly updating social media posts.
She had all but given up hope when a Manchester vet phoned to say a bedraggled Chubbs had been found in Wigan.
Donna said: “It was overwhelming. It hasn’t quite sunk in. It’s just surreal.
“I’ve been looking for him for 10 years.
“For him to just all of a sudden be reunited with me, it’s a lot to take in. He is so happy to be home. I pick him up and he just purrs so much.
“Since he’s realised he’s home and he’s safe, he’s spread out. He’s loving life.”
Donna, a charity volunteer, said when Chubbs suddenly went missing she was left distraught and did everything she could to get him back.
She said: “I put posters up everywhere, put flyers through people’s letterboxes, put ads in the local paper and it was on social media.
“I continued to keep updating it for years. You drive past houses, and you look in windows, and you think could he be in there?”
The search came to an end when a Good Samaritan spotted Chubbs – who is microchipped – looking neglected in Wigan.
Donna said: “She picked him up and took him to the vets. They could not believe it when they found out how far away he was. The lady looked him up on Facebook and saw all the messages and posts I’d put up and realised ‘He’s a really
loved cat, he’s really missed.’”
Now Chubbs is back with her, Donna says she will be making up for the years she’s missed out on with him while he’s been gone. She said: “He is going to be spoilt rotten and live out his years in peace and comfort.”