An Arlesey family is complete again after their cat returned home – two and a half years after disappearing.

The Comet: Scrat the cat with the twins.Scrat the cat with the twins. (Image: Archant)

In Februray 2012 Leigh Lerpiniere took in two cats, brother and sister Scrat and Possum, after their owners moved abroad. But a few days later both cats escaped after a door was left open.

The family spent the next eight months printing cards and posting them around Arlesey with Leigh managing to track down Possum, who she said was “extremely thin and nervous”.

Shortly after, they moved to Icknield Close in Ickleford and a decision was made to find the cat a family without children, as Possum was nervous of Leigh’s young twins.

The family continued to distribute leaflets around shops and houses in Arlesey in a bid to find Scrat, before moving back to the town on July 8.

Last week friend Rachael Calver from Ickleford, who had helped rehome Possum, put a status on Facebook asking if anyone recognised what seemed to be a stray cat in the street.

Leigh said: “I recognised it as Scrat straight away. She caught him for me and I went back to Ickleford and collected him. He was healthy and very happy. My twins were over the moon to have him back and the family is again complete.

“The chances of my cat turning up at my previous address in another county seemed way too far fetched but it happened.

“A friend of mine in the street had even told me a story days before of how she’d managed to lock herself out of her house at night by shutting the door to stop a ginger cat getting in and had to call the fire brigade. We had no idea.”