Cat reunited with owners after disappearing 20 months ago

WHEN this cat disappeared almost two years ago Magnus and Katie Rowney feared the worst. But, amazingly, Sasquatch has come home - just in time for Christmas.

Sasquatch the cat is back at home in Morningside. Picture: AAP Image/Claudia Baxter

MAGNUS and Katie Rowney have had a Christmas miracle – the cat is back.

“When I got the phone call I thought they were calling to tell me they had found the body,” Mrs Rowney said.

Instead, the Albion Veterinary Surgery was calling to say the Rowneys’ missing cat, Sasquatch, had been brought into their clinic.

Ms Rowney, 30, said the long-haired, desexed Calico had disappeared from their Carina Heights home in April, 2016. They thought she had been stolen.

“I was in such a tizzy ... they asked me to describe her and I said ‘She looks like she’s fallen out of the vacuum cleaner,’” she said.

“She’s so fluffy and looks like you swept everything up into a corner. I think it was pretty obvious I was losing my mind with joy.”

Katie Rowney with her beloved cat, Sasquatch. Picture: AAP Image/Claudia Baxter

Ms Rowney, who works at the University of Queensland in St Lucia, said she tipped some items out of a box to take with her and did a “public transport dash” to get to Albion before the surgery closed.

“I had to get a bus and a train, so I was running through Roma Street carrying this huge box,” she said.

“I got off the train at Albion and ran to the vet’s from there. I was almost crying the whole time with excitement.”

She said once Sasquatch smelled her owner’s hand, she started purring, drooling and headbutting her for pats.

“Now that she’s home, she follows us around like a little shadow,” Mrs Rowney said.

“It’s a little Christmas miracle, having her back.”

The cat was almost three when she went missing and was the fourth pet owned by the Rowneys, who also have two dogs and another cat.

Sasquatch, nicknamed Purrbot, among other names, because of her loud purr, was best mates with cattle dog, Buster, 13, who kept looking for her when she disappeared.

Meanwhile Naomi, Oliver and Jenny Frowd were cleaning equipment outside the Sporting Wheelies Association house in Bowen Hills on Friday when a cat – one that other staff members had spotted over a couple of months – came out to see them.

Sasquatch the cat is back home in time for Christmas. Picture: AAP Image/Claudia Baxter

Mrs Oliver, 33, said it started meowing and rubbing against their legs.

“I patted the back of her neck and felt something hard, which I assumed was a microchip,” she said.

They took the cat to the Albion vet to have the microchip scanned.

“The vet staff were almost in tears themselves as she had been missing for two years,” Mrs Oliver said. “We’re just really pleased we could make somebody’s Christmas.”

The grateful Rowneys said it was also a lesson in keeping microchip details up to date. Albion Vet staff members said if microchips had incorrect contact details animals usually had to go the RPSCA shelter or the pound.