A cat who was missing for two years has been reunited with his owner.
Babes slipped from his harness and ran off during a holiday in the Lake District.
His owner, Gael, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, said she had almost “lost hope” but received a text in the middle of the night showing the cat in an allotment, and immediately left for Kendal, Cumbria, with a tin of sardines.
She said: “Now he’s jumping up on the couch, he’s purring, he’s showing his little brother, Precious, who’s boss.”
Babes was a stray who Gael had fed for two years. He then lived with her for another 18 months, before he disappeared.
“He was a proper feral cat when he came,” she told Radio Cumbria’s Nishma Hindocha.
“Then he was like a little baby, he loved his snuggles.”
‘Throwing sardines’
Gael had been staying in Windermere when Babes ran off.
“I couldn’t even sleep, it was just the worst time,” she said.
While she searched, a stranger even lent her a van to sleep in so she did not have to go back and forth between her home and the Lakes.
“When the 12-month mark passed, and not a single sighting, I just didn’t think it was possible that he’d now gone through two winters with that many people looking for him,” she explained.
Babes was found living in an allotment around six miles (9.6km) from where he first disappeared.
A local resident shared a photo on social media, which eventually got to Gael.
“I’d just got into bed, turned my light off and I got a text message,” she said.
“Over the two years, I’ve had so many pictures but I knew that was him straight away.”
She said she then immediately got into her car to collect him.
“I was on the floor, I was throwing sardines towards him,” she said, adding: “I believe he recognised me, my voice.”
Now home for about a week, Gael said Babes was “doing fantastic”.
“It feels like he’s never been away,” she said.
