Cat gives purr of recognition as she’s reunited with owner after 13 years

A stunned cat owner has been reunited with her pet more than a decade after it went missing as a kitten.

Gemma Barbieri, from Thetford in Norfolk, was amazed to receive a call saying 14-year-old Rose had been found – 13 years after disappearing – but says the animal was quickly purring after coming home.

The animal, named after Billie Piper’s character in Doctor Who, had been an eighth birthday present for Gemma’s daughter, Alicia, but soon went missing in 2008.

The family lived in King’s Lynn at the time and Gemma said she felt ‘guilty’ when they moved house 10 years later in 2018, ‘in case she came home and we weren’t there for her’.

The story comes weeks after another microchipped cat was found 20 years after she went missing – and spent the final two days of her life with her old owner.

Rose was reported as a stray in the King’s Lynn area and was taken in by Cats Protection’s Downham Market Adoption Centre this year.

She was a healthy weight and in good condition but her whereabouts for the previous 13 years remain a mystery.

Charity shop worker Gemma said she initially rejected the centre’s phone call as she did not recognise the phone number.

‘But it rang again almost immediately so I thought it might be important and should answer,’ she explained.

‘I’ll always be grateful I did!

‘I couldn’t believe it when they asked if my cat had gone missing in 2008.

‘I just blurted out “Have you found Rose?”

‘They said a black cat brought in as a stray had been scanned and the microchip showed that she was missing.

Gemma continued: ‘It was Rose.

‘I was so stunned, I was shaking.’

She added that as soon as she finished work she went to collect her beloved pet.

‘As soon I got Rose in the car, she was talking all the way home,’ she said.

‘She settled almost immediately when we arrived home.

‘It was amazing.

‘Within an hour she’d eaten, used the litter tray, explored the whole house and was laying purring on her back while I stroked her belly.

‘She’s pretty much been purring ever since and has settled in completely.’

She has already been reunited by video call with Alicia, who is now 21 and a student at the University of Derby.

Rose and her brother Tyler were adopted as kittens in 2007, but Tyler was hit by a car and died in June 2008 and Rose went missing a few months later.

Gemma said they put up posters and knocked on doors, and logged Rose as missing on the microchip database as they always hoped she would return home eventually.

She said she would ‘absolutely recommend microchipping to anyone getting a cat, because it works’.

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