'Miracle' as lost cat returned home after five years

A woman has been reunited with her cat nearly five years after he went missing - an experience she has described as a "miracle".

Danielle Arme, who lived in Chellaston, Derby, at the time, said Bodhi had disappeared in July 2021 and she had "lost hope" of finding him as time passed.

However, on 30 March, the 37-year-old was contacted by Viccie Mahon, who lives in Sudbury, Derbyshire, to say she had found Bodhi.

Arme said she had "burst into tears" when she heard Bodhi was safe and well.

Arme said she had put up a lot of posters in Chellaston and sent out leaflets after Bodhi went missing.

"After that year, I just lost all hope. I thought 'I'm never going to get him back'," she said.

Mahon said Bodhi had started to turn up at her house just after Christmas and she had noticed he was sleeping in a carport.

The 59-year-old said she had a builder working on her home who would feed him little bits of food.

She said she and other family members had thought he was a girl and named the cat Martha.

She added she remembered having a thought of "what if" the cat had got in the back of a van and travelled to Sudbury, so she organised for Bodhi to have a scan to see if there was a chip.

"As much as I would have liked to have kept her, I know from previous if someone's desperately looking for their cat you can't just keep it," she said.

After the scanner picked up a code, she sent it to a pet tracking company, which informed Mahon that the owner of the cat was from Derbyshire, the cat was a male called Bodhi and he had gone missing in 2021.

When the pet tracking company failed to get hold of the owner, Mahon searched online for 'missing cat Bodhi December 2021' and said she had found Arme's Facebook appeal.

Mahon said she then contacted Arme, who now lives in Shelton Lock, and told her that Bodhi was with her.

She said it had been "emotional" returning Bodhi to Arme, adding: "She couldn't believe it, she was so happy to have him back."

When she went to collect Bodhi, Arme said he had been sitting in the back of a van belonging to a builder, with whom he had struck up a bond.

She said: "I just shed tears. I thought, 'where have you been all this time?'.

"I just wish he could talk, you know, he could tell me about all his adventures."

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