A SCOTTISH cat has been reunited with its owner after going missing five years ago thanks to being microchipped.
Smoke - a Bengal cat from Fife - went missing in 2018 when he was just two.
Immediately after Smoke disappeared, the family put up posters around the local area and knocked on neighbours’ doors to ask if they had seen Smoke, but he was never found.
The family never gave up hope though and when they moved house last year, they updated their contact details with Petlog, the database Smoke was microchipped with.
Five years and two months on from when Smoke disappeared, Kev received a phone call from a vets practice in a town 10 miles away to say he had been found.
Kev said: "It took me by surprise because Charcoal [Smoke's littermate] was asleep upstairs, but when the vet said it was Smoke, who had been brought in for minor treatment, scanned and traced to us via the Petlog microchipping database, that was a shock to say the least.
"I didn’t quite want to believe it until I had seen him."
On arriving at the vet, Kev and Janet were told that the couple who had brought Smoke in had been looking after him and keeping him indoors for the last five years, around three miles from his home.
Smoke is now settling back in his new home but is "very traumatised".
Kev said: "It could be a long process but I’m sure we’ll get there.
“We have only had this second chance with Smoke because he was chipped and our contact details were kept up to date.”
Bill Lambert, spokesperson for Petlog, added: “We’re so pleased that Smoke has been reunited with all his family because of his microchip, and their story is a great lesson for owners to keep their contact details up to date with their microchip database, no matter how much time has passed."
