The cat that has been missing for three years is coming home

After three long years apart, a Rutland family and their long-lost mogos have been reunited thanks to the power of social media.

Hannah Clarke, from Oakham, said it is “still so surreal” that Ivy is back home after she went missing on a Friday in August 2021.

“It feels so surreal to be honest; it feels so natural to have her on your back, but it’s also so bizarre to have her here at the same time. She’s just pulled back like she was never gone.”

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The family was going on vacation, leaving Ivy in the care of neighbors and friends, something they had done before without any problems.

“We were going camping at the weekend and she’s always been an outdoor cat so she’s very used to people coming and feeding her, but after that day no one saw her at all. So it wasn’t like she had the hump with us that we left – she disappeared without a trace.

“It was absolutely heartbreaking, the children were quite young at the time, about five and seven, and she was part of the family.

“I was out for weeks putting up posters, handing out leaflets, I posted all over Facebook just trying to get his face out there, but there was nothing, absolutely nothing. I think the posters must have been around for months. Every few months, I post on social media; even on the one year anniversary I posted to appeal for any information but nothing came back.

Then, just last week, a post on a local Facebook group made Hannah sit up and take notice. It was a member of staff at Oakham School asking if anyone knew the owner of a certain black and white shorthair cat that had been hanging around the school for weeks.

“I procrastinated a bit and saw a post on the Facebook group asking if anyone knew this cat. I commented saying “I think that’s my cat”. I was taking pictures I had of her and looking at the marks on her face and just thinking ‘yeah, that’s her, it has to be’.

Hannah, who works as a beautician, added: “So I drove over there in a cat carrier and left my phone number saying if it comes up again give me a call. Then I got a call the next morning and took her to the vets where they scanned her and there she was.

“I knew 100% it was her after looking at the markings, but I had this doubt. When I went to pick her up, I told her I knew it was her because she had a wiggly tail from a surgery she had when she was younger.

“The ladies working at the school then gasped and said ‘yeah, he’s got a wagging tail.’

Hannah was then able to get an immediate appointment with the vets to see how Ivy had fared in her nearly three year absence. Apart from only two broken teeth, she was in perfect health.

Her children Toby, 9, and Martha, 8, had no idea what had happened until their mother did the school run last Friday (May 17).

“It was so beautiful,” she said, “as soon as I got them I said I had a surprise for them. Then I knocked her down and they were like ‘oh my god it’s Ivy! and they recognized her immediately. They gave her so many pats and helped her settle in again – especially now that we have another cat to get used to after all the kicking!

“I just want to say a massive thank you to the staff at Oakham School for all their help in getting her back to us. I also wanted to add that if anyone gets a stray please scan it.

“Ivy was microchipped and if she had been scanned all those years ago then I could have been informed straight away and avoided all this heartache.”