Distraught cat owners spend £2,000 trying to find pet

Distraught owners delivered 400 leaflets and spent almost £2,000 on a pet detective, after their cat went missing.

Cat owners Alan Wilkinson and Isla Armstrong spent the money after their beloved moggy went missing – only for him to suddenly turn up after a mysterious fortnight away.

'Thomas' the cat was let out from the couple's home in Packmoor in Stoke-on-Trent but alarm bells were raised after he failed to come home that evening.

Alan and Isla, who say they struggled to sleep for the two weeks he was away, paid for a specialist pet detective to hunt him down and also delivered hundreds of leaflets to homes in the area.

The couple then paid for a specialist pet detective who also uses a trained dog to locate missing animals.

The detective, who failed to locate the cat, suggested that a recent disturbance in the house might have caused Thomas to relocate.

After a fortnight of a searching, Thomas mysteriously re-appeared on the Alan and Isla's patio.

The couple are now using a GPS tracker should Thomas go on an extended trip away again.

While it is unlikely they will ever find out where Thomas spent his two-week getaway, Alan has a theory he was taken in before the cat's fussy eating habits put off his new ‘owners’.