Missing cat back with owners – after five years
A cat has been reunited with his owners almost five years after going missing.
When Chaos vanished, his owners Darren and Gemma Hudson were devastated.
He had been bought as a present for Darren’s birthday and the pair quickly became best friends – until Chaos went missing exactly six years later to the day.
Gemma said: “Chaos was a member of our family and we loved him dearly. It was extremely painful when he didn't come home.”
The pair searched for months, scouring nearby fields and lay-bys and appealing for help online. They had given up hope and believed the pet would never be back – until they received an unexpected call.
Darren said :“We were just going about our business when my wife received a call from Chi chesterVets asking about Chaos. At first, Gemma couldn’t believe it and just thought it might be another mistaken identity. But it turned out to be him.”
Darren and Gem ma believed Chaos had been abducted from outside their home in Ford and dumped in Slindon.
Since then, he had been livingwith an elderly lady but, when she passed away, he was taken to the vets to be rehomed as there was no one to care for him.
However, when the vet scanned his micro chip, it was realised that he already belonged to someone and had been registered as a missing cat.
Darren said :“Gem map honed me crying saying they’d found Chaos, but I couldn’t believe it. I’m still struggling to believe it.” Despite the lost time, Chaos recognised his owner almost five years since last seeing him.
Darren added: “As soon as I said his name, he stood up and walked over to me purring. He’s still with me now. He doesn’t reallyleave my side at the moment .”
The couple had received many mistaken-identity calls over the past five years, and on multiple occasions travelled miles to see missing cats which turned out to belong to someone else.
Darren said: “You constantly have glimmers of hope but don’t get anything from it. You kind of get whittled down. The worst part was not knowing, if he was dead we would have got closure.
But we never got that. We never knew.
“We were worried he was in someone’s house getting mistreated. Your mind goes to all sorts of places.”
The bitter sweet reality is that Chaos is now 11 years old and is showing ‘signs of wear and tear’, including possible stress-induced epilepsy, while Gemma and Darren have to come to terms with the fact that they have missed out on five years of their beloved cat’s life.
Darren said: “He’s an old cat now. He was six when he left us, and now he’s 11. It’s horrible that that’s been taken from me.”
Gem ma added :“We are grateful he was looked after by the kind lady but so upset we have lost almost five years with our dear cat.”
Chaos is now settling into his former home and getting used to living with three other cats Gemma and Darren adopted while Chaos was missing.
Gemma and Darren are now encouraging cat owners to microchip their beloved felines to prevent them going through the same heartache, and are urging anyone who finds a stray cat to take it to the vet to be scanned.