Beloved cat who disappeared from Blackpool is found in Clayton-Le-Woods - eight years later

Marisa Davies, 23, was just 15 when her pet cat Buble disappeared from the family home on Ayrton Avenue, South Shore.

She had given up hope of ever seeing him again. But on July 20, eight years after he went missing, her mum Lisa received a phone call from a vet in Garstang telling her Buble had been found in Clayton-Le-Woods, Chorley.

He had been traced back to the Davies family using his microchip.

Marisa, a flight attendant, said: “Buble was only a year old when he disappeared. He was grown, but he was still a baby. We put up posters everywhere, put up Facebook statuses, we tried absolutely everything to try and find him.

“We thought he had been taken, but we could never prove that theory. He was so friendly that when I walked to school he would walk with me. It wouldn’t have surprised me if someone took him because he was so friendly.

“Months went by and then a year, and we just thought maybe he had been run over by a speeding car and nobody had wanted to tell us.”

Buble is now settling into Marisa’s home in Marton after his extended holiday.

“I’d like to find out who has been looking after him, but he is my cat and he has always been my cat. He’s just been missing,” Marisa said. “I went to pick him up straight away. It’s like he’s never been away. He’s rolling around, just getting used to being back home, laying on my lap like he used to. It sounds silly but he has not aged at all. He looks exactly the same

“It’s amazing to have him back. It’s like a miracle. I was crying massively when I picked him up from the vets.”

REUNITED... Thanks to a microchip

Buble was returned to Marisa thanks to the microchip he was given when he was a kitten.

Once a pet is microchipped with a unique code, its owners contact details are stored in a database - meaning the two can be reunited if the pet gets lost or stolen. Vets, dog wardens, and some animal rescue groups are able to carry out microchip scans.

Legally, all dogs must be microchipped and their owners details kept up-to-date, but this is not a requirement for cats.

Marisa said: “Buble’s obviously never been to the vets ince he went missing, otherwise they would have known he was missing straight away.”