A cat which went missing from its Portadown home at the end of November has turned up safe and well.
Miles, a six-year-old ginger with white markings, was located just a few miles away in Clare, Tandragee.
His owner Ruth McCauley shared the good news with Armagh I today (Tuesday).
Ruth, who had shared Miles’ image far and wide in a bid to find him, explained how she redid all her posts on the lost pet pages on Sunday.
She was then messaged by a friend alerting her to some photos which had been posted under one of them, which looked “very very like him” and was given an address in Clare.
“The gentleman was at work, but his mother was in,” she said. “She explained that he had showed up about a week ago, with their cat, and he was really really hungry, and they had been feeding him.
“She said they had called him by name and he had responded. He wasn’t around when we went, but I got the carrier out of the car to leave with them.
“Before we left I decided to go and investigate a bit more. I ended up crawling under a gate. I shook treats and Jingles his teddy bear and called his name, and I heard a meow! I called again and another meow! And I saw him across the road.”
Miles the cat has been returned home safe and sound having been missing since November
She added: “He is now home and very hungry. We are giving him a little at a time so he isn’t sick. He has explored the house. He seems desperate to get outside but not a chance.
“I have ordered a GPS collar, and he is booked in to the vet tomorrow morning for a check over – he seems OK, though just very thin!
“We are over the moon to have him home, I can’t quite believe it! He wants snuggles, and food, lots of food.”
Ruth said she had so many “wonderful people” to thank and asked anyone who wanted to celebrate Miles’ safe return to make a donation to a cat charity, such as Cats Protection Armagh Branch or Rescue Cats NI.
Ruth, along with family and friends, had walked miles searching for the cat as well as using a drone, leaflets, posters and the power of social media.
Ruth, who adopted the cat when it turned up in her garden in spring 2016, said Miles had been a real comfort to her as she suffers from depression and anxiety.
Read more: Ruth refusing to give up hope on much-loved lost cat Miles who gives her ‘so much comfort’
