Ozzie the ginger cat was found wandering the streets of County Armagh, Northern Ireland. When vets checked his microchip they were stunned to find he was from Sydney. Photo / Facebook: Armagh Cats Protection
Ozzie the ginger cat was found wandering the streets of County Armagh, Northern Ireland. When vets checked his microchip they were stunned to find he was from Sydney. Photo / Facebook: Armagh Cats Protection
A globetrotting cat managed to make its way from Australia to London and then Northern Ireland - a trip of almost 11,000 miles.
The 25-year-old ginger cat, named Ozzie by his rescuers, was found wandering the streets of Laurelvale, County Armagh last week and was taken to the local CatsProtection centre.
Staff there scanned his microchip and were stunned to find the poorly feline was registered in Sydney in 2000 as 'Tigger'.
The data also showed that he had turned up as a stray in a vet's clinic in London in 2004 but his owner could not be traced.
Volunteers launched a campaign on social media to uncover how the moggy ended up on the other side of the world - and the post has been shared more than 18,000 times.
The cat is currently on a drip after suffering kidney failure. Cats Protection spokesman Gillian McMullen said: 'I responded to a call from a member of the public who was concerned about a stray.
'The poor cat was starving but obviously had been cared for in the past because it was wearing a collar. We discovered it was microchipped and this is where the mystery begins.'
The microchip revealed that Ozzie was born in 1989, making him 25 - ten years older than the age of the average cat and roughly 117 in human years.
Miss McMullen went on to say: 'The cat had been microchipped in Australia, and in 2004 he turned up as a stray in a vet clinic in London, but no owners could be traced. If only he could tell us about his life - and tell us how he got here!'
