A woman whose beloved cat went missing 10 years ago has finally been reunited with him – after he was found 250 miles away. Donna Gallacher last saw her British shorthair cross Chubbs – who she had reared since he was a kitten – when he went missing from her home in Weymouth, Dorset.
Since then she worked tirelessly to find her adored feline – putting adverts in local papers, handing out flyers and regularly updating social media posts. And she had all but given up hope for the microchipped moggy until a Manchester vet phoned to say bedraggled Chubbs had been found last month in Wigan.
Donna said it was a “surreal” moment when she found Chubbs would be returning to her, adding the cat was “so happy” to be home finally. She 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 and made himself at home – he’s loving life.”
Donna, a charity volunteer, said when Chubbs suddenly went missing in 2012, she was left distraught and did everything she could to get him back. She said: “I put posters up everywhere and put flyers through people’s letterboxes all around my immediate area, and I put ads in the local paper and it was on social media.
“I continued to keep updating it and sharing it, and I’ve done that for years You drive past houses, and you look in windows, and you think could he be in there?
“What saddened me is that I thought that if I ever saw him again, it would be when he was not very well – because he would have to go to a vet.” Ten years later, she got a call to say that the feline would be coming home after he was found hundreds of miles away in Manchester – leaving her stunned.
She said: “I had a phone call from my mum saying Chubbs is on his way home, and I thought ‘what? Oh my God!’ A lady had seen him previously by a school and thought ‘he doesn’t look too good today, and he started wandering into the road, into traffic.’
“He was very, very neglected. He was flea-ridden, skin and bones – he couldn’t fend for himself.
“She stopped the car, 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.”