When Ozzie the cat’s owners moved home back in September 2016, the move unsettled her and she went AWOL, exploring her new area. So Charlotte O’Daly and her partner Michael did what countless people do every week in Bristol – put up some missing cat posters and a post on Bristol’s lost and found pets Facebook page.
Ozzie didn’t find her way home, and within a few weeks, the family moved home. They moved again across South Bristol, so had given up all hope of ever seeing Ozzie – who was aged seven at the time – again. That was particularly poignant as their other cat was Ozzie’s son Milky.
But this week, eight years and three months – or 3,022 days – later, Charlotte received a phone call that left her stunned. Not only was Ozzie still alive at the grand old age of 15, but she was sitting in a vets down the road.
Charlotte said the call sparked a ‘whirlwind day filled with oh so many tears of joy’. “It was honestly quite unbelievable. I did not expect to get the call after all this time,” she said. Charlotte said the family moved to her partner’s dad’s house in Hartcliffe while they waited for a flat to be ready for them to move again. They’ve since moved again to a house in Withywood and, with all the moves, had given up hope that Ozzie would ever find her way home again.
What she’d been doing for eight years is a bit of a mystery. She was brought to the vets this week by a woman living in a street in Hartcliffe around half a mile away at the other end of Willmott Park, who told the vets she’d been feeding her as a stray for around four years, and was worried she had an eye infection, and she wouldn’t be able to feed her anymore because she was moving away as well.
“We’ve got no idea what she was doing for the first four years, but it sounds like someone was feeding her but decided to take her to the vets because of her eye, and them moving house,” said Charlotte. “It appears she’s been a bit of a feral alley cat.”
Charlotte said the case showed the importance of getting your pets chipped – and of people who come across stray or lost pets taking them to the vets to get their chips scanned. She said she was grateful that Ozzie was fed and taken to the vets, but had the thought they might have got her back years ago.
“My biggest frustration today is knowing that I could have had her back all those years ago,” said Charlotte. “Checking a chip is important, and also not feeding other cats unless for capture purposes,” she added.
But now, there is only joy that she’s returned and is making herself at home, and reconnecting with her son. “We’ve all missed her dearly, but are so pleased she’s home with us. She’s still got her lovely spirit and hopefully has many more years ahead of her as she’s looking pretty healthy for 15 years young. Her son, who I still have, has missed his motherly love,” said Charlotte.
“At the beginning of the year I got another two cats as I’d given up hope we’d get her back. Little did I know we’d actually get to see that day. We’re still in the ‘pinch me’ phase and can’t believe I’m actually looking at her. She’s been rubbing her pheromones all over the house and so knows that she’s home,” she added.
Ozzie’s eye problem is being treated, and she’s now getting spoiled rotten, as well as reconnecting with her son, and the family’s two new cats.
“I’ll be taking her in after Christmas for a more intense check up as I’d like to see how all of her vitals are seeing as she’s been potentially on the streets for the last eight years. However, she’s doing great for a 15-year-old lady. It’s been lush watching how she’s just slotted back into the family considering she has a lot more new friends than old,” she added.