Cornwall family 'overjoyed' after cat returns eight years after disappearing

A family from Cornwall is celebrating after their cat returned home - eight years after going missing.

Catherine Jeffries and her two daughters were living in Shortlanesend, Cornwall, when their two-year-old cat, Dusty, disappeared.

Dusty had been a gift to the family and they had raised her from an eight-week-old kitten. When the family moved to a new home near Truro, Dusty went missing shortly after.

Despite an extensive search, including posters, social media pleas, and miles of walking, they found no sign of Dusty and eventually believed they’d lost her for good.

But last weekend Catherine, who now lives in Camborne, received an call from a vet asking if she had lost a cat.

At first she said no but then she quickly remembered Dusty, who had been gone for nearly a decade.

After describing the cat, Catherine was stunned to hear that Dusty had been found.

“I’m still in shock, to be fair; she was gone for eight years,” Catherine said. “At the time, we had put up all of the lost posters and Facebook posts and everything, we just presumed she’d been hit by a car or something.”

The cat was reportedly found at a nearby care home, where staff noticed her roaming with scratches on her back. “They called me and asked if I was missing a cat, and I said, ‘umm, from eight years ago'.

“One of my daughters was crying when I told her. She was the childhood cat. They’re both very happy we’ll be getting her back.”

Megan, one of Catherine’s daughters, added: “She must have run away or got lost somewhere. We had the cat since she was a kitten, my auntie’s cat had her in a litter, and we had her from eight weeks old.

"We woke up one day, and she wasn’t there. We were very worried - we couldn’t find any trace of her, and we thought she was dead.

“She’s 12 now, so she was three when she went missing. “She was thrilled to see us all again; she’s being very cuddly - we’re so glad to have her back.”

Due to her age and the family’s concerns about her safety, Dusty will now live indoors to prevent her from straying again.

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