Family 'overjoyed' after being reunited with missing cat after six years

Six years after losing their precious hand-reared kitten a family has been left overjoyed to be reunited with their beloved cat. Marie Edwards recalled how she had found Twig the cat as a new born kitten in their garden.

Despite Twig being so little she would need feeding every two hours, Marie, her partner Ned Woodman and son Arlo Woodman, from Stalybridge, Tameside, worked to raise her. Against the odds, Twig survived and became a new member of the family.

Marie recalled the day Twig came into their lives over seven years ago, telling the Manchester Evening News: "We had a stray cat living in our garden, but we didn't know. One afternoon seven and a half years ago I could hear my chickens really clucking, so I went to see what was going on.

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"In the middle was a tiny creature, I picked it up and brought it in. I saw that it was a kitten, and I still saw that it had its umbilical cord attached. The vet confirmed that it was a kitten."

Kittens at such a vulnerable stage need constant care, including helping them to go to the toilet, as well as feeding them every two hours. Marie said the vet

"Most of them don't survive. The vet told me that she probably wouldn't survive."

Twig was also not the only kitten that the family would find. Four other kittens had also been scattered around.

"I could hear kittens", said Marie. "We eventually found four kittens that had been scattered. When cats give birth and feel under threat they scatter their kittens."

Despite a caution from the vet that Twig was unlikely to make, the family worked hard to raise her and her siblings. "We had to wake up every two hours to hand feed them," said Marie. "We hand reared her and all five survived.

"All the other kittens found a home. Her mum found a home, she was feral."

After overcoming the obstacles to help Twig stay alive, she soon became a loving member of the family who would follow them in the bushes when they went to Tesco. But six years ago the family were distraught when Twig disappeared.

"It was the fifth of May six years ago, in the afternoon I noticed Twig hadn't come in in the afternoon," said Marie. "About five o' clock was the time I used to feed her.

"I went to call her. She didn't come back, we were bereft. We put notes out, my partner and I were looking for her."

Despite their best efforts the family resigned themselves to never seeing Twig again. Marie said: "We did everything we possibly could to try and find her. After the first year we just thought we wouldn't see her again.

"The only person who never believed that she was dead was my son. He always said that she was still alive somewhere."

But this year, six years after Twig's mysterious disappearance, the phone rang. It was Tiffany Dodd, a full time cat re-homer who runs a YouTube channel documenting her rescues.

"Six years later to the day Tiffany phoned my partner and she said 'I've got your cat'," said Marie. "We were both utterly in shock but overjoyed.

"She was such a member of the family, we hand reared her from birth. Tiffany brought her her back to us, and we were over the moon!"

The family took Twig to the vets, where they scanned her chip and confirmed that it was indeed their long lost cat. After getting checked up Twig was a little underweight but soon returned to a healthy weight.

"She was in perfect health," said Marie. "When she first turned up there she was really underweight, she's gone from being underweight to being cuddly.

"She was in much better condition than a cat that had been living on the streets.

"We're overjoyed, she's settling back in. She didn't need any dental work, nothing. She's a perfectly healthy cat."

As to where Twig was during her six year absence, that will remain for only Twig to know.