Missing cat named Ginge is found 86 miles away from home… almost a year later
A cat named Ginge has been reunited with his owner in Sunderland after being found living among a feral cat colony 86 miles away in Garforth, Leeds, almost a year after he first went missing. Lucy Roche, a volunteer branch leader for the charity Cat Action Trust 1977, noticed Ginge was tamer than the other feral cats she was caring for and took him to a vet, where a microchip scan traced him back to his owner. The discovery has drawn widespread attention online, with the charity highlighting it as a powerful example of why pet microchipping matters.
Roche said Ginge's owner, named Beth, was in "a flood of tears" upon learning her pet had been found, and a video of their reunion has since gone viral, with well-wishers commenting from as far afield as America and New Zealand. Ginge spent a night at Roche's home, recovering from apparent exhaustion, before being collected by his owner. Roche noted that microchipping, which became a legal requirement for pet cats in England in 2024, was the only reason Ginge could be identified and returned home, and stressed that her entirely volunteer-run rescue branch faces constant demand for help.
- Cat Ginge found alive 86 miles from home after a year missing
- Microchip led rescuers to his owner in Sunderland
- Emotional reunion video went viral worldwide
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Ginge is a pet cat who went missing from his home in Sunderland roughly a year ago and had not been seen since. He was eventually discovered living rough as part of a colony of feral cats in Garforth, near Leeds, some 86 miles from where he disappeared.
The person who found him, Lucy Roche, volunteers for Cat Action Trust 1977, a charity that looks after feral and stray cats. She spotted that he behaved differently from the truly feral animals around him and had him checked by a vet, where a scan of his microchip, a small implanted device carrying an owner's contact details, identified him and led back to his owner, Beth.
Microchipping cats has been a legal requirement in England since 2024, precisely so that lost or displaced animals can be traced back to their owners. This case has been picked up widely as an example of that system working as intended, and has also drawn attention to the pressures faced by small, volunteer-run animal rescue groups.