Missing cat reunited with its Nottinghamshire owner after disappearing six years ago

Gizmo vanished from Zoe Foster’s home on May 28, 2014 but miraculously reappeared at a Selston vet’s eight-and-half miles away earlier this month.

Zoe, 44, of Hucknall, always believed the much-loved moggy would come back and thought it was a prank call when a vet rang to say the black tabby, now nine, was alive and well.

She said: “It was really strange I knew he was going to come home. When I got the phone call on Monday I could have fallen over.”

One morning six years ago, Gizmo went out and didn't return. Zoe thought he wouldn't stray far because he was neutered but started to panic when he never returned.

She said: “I was calling and calling him but he wouldn’t come back. I just did everything I could to find him.

“I laid out posters, knocked doors, phoned vets, and phones Pet Log because he was microchipped.

“I tried all the sites and missing pages on social media. Nothing was working.

“It was like he’d vanished. It was really awful. He was only tiny when I got him and he was always by my side.”

Zoe still doesn’t know how Gizmo got away, but suspects he hitched a lift.

She added: “The next door neighbours were having building work done at the time. Maybe he got in the van and was taken away.

“If only he could talk he could tell us about his adventure.

“When I’d driven him home it was the first time I was able to give him a hug.

“I think he does recognise me. He does look up when I call him and twitches his ears.

The single care worker said a woman in Selston thought Gizmo had been abandoned.

She fed him for several years and he slept in a chicken coop in her garden, but wouldn’t come in the house.

Gizmo was traced back to her when the woman eventually took him to a vet.

Zoe advises people who find a cat to take it to a vet straight away for them to check if it’s microchipped.

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