Cat back after 5-month walkabout

DONNA WALSH/ Waikato Times

FORTUNATE FELINE: From left, Pip Oxlade,Peggy Pike, Sue Briggs and John with Ali. The cat is back home after a five-month absence.

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John and Pip Oxlade received an early Christmas present this week – the return of their beloved moggy Ali.

And it has taken an unusual series of circumstances for the Cambridge feline, which went missing in July, to arrive back home.

Ali, who is 2 years old, went missing from their Cambridge home five months ago.

It was totally unlike him to disappear. Yet despite the months going by both Mr and Mrs Oxlade were still confident their cat would turn up.

"We never gave up on him. We never felt like he was really missing," Pip said, while Mr Oxlade added that he even had a dream that they found the cat last week. Things did start to happen late last week when family friend Sue Briggs was at Cambridge Veterinary Services.

A woman came to the counter saying she had a grey cat they were looking after, and asked if they knew if anyone was missing one.

"As she described it, I thought `that could not be possible – that must be Ali'," she said.

Mrs Briggs swapped telephone numbers with the woman, Peggy Pike, who had been given Ali by friends who had lived on Kaipaki Rd and found him wandering around the streets in July.

With little delay, Mrs Oxlade was around at Mrs Pike's house, and Ali – renamed "Smoggy" by Mrs Pike – and the Oxlades were reunited.

"He's had about eight of his nine lives," Mrs Oxlade laughed.

"He's had a chequeredlife," Mr Oxlade said about Ali, who has a fondness for taking walks with the couple, and their dog Maisy.

"He's not a very brave cat though."

How the cat travelled around five kilometres to Kaipaki Rd is unknown.

However, Mr Oxlade believes Ali must have been hiding in the car when the couple went to look at a property in the area.

"Maybe it's a sign we have to buy that piece of land," he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News