A FAMILY are relieved to have their cat back after it was found at a home 60 miles down the south-east coast line.

Sarah Hodges from Hanover, Brighton, was “shocked” when she received a call saying her seven-year-old son’s cat, Cookie, was found in Southampton after it had been missing for a month.

She said: “I was so happy when I answered the phone to this lovely couple who told me they had found Cookie safe and sound, but I just couldn’t believe it when they said they were calling from all the way over in Southampton. I was just so shocked that she had gone that far.

“I kept repeating ‘Southampton?’ ‘She’s all the way over in Southampton?’ to them on the phone.

“Cookie would sometimes go away from the house for a couple of days at a time, but never for this long and certainly never that far”.

One-year-old Cookie was found hiding in the roof of a garage at an elderly couple’s home in Southampton.

Sarah said Malcolm and Rita found Cookie after they “heard meowing” coming from their garage and immediately took her to the vet, who managed to track her home address thanks to a chip.

Sarah said: “I have absolutely no idea how on earth she managed to go that far.

“There’s a chance she could have crawled into a lorry or maybe even followed my partner on to a train because he often goes up to London.

“We are so lucky that she was found by a lovely cat loving couple.

“Malcolm and Rita even said if we couldn’t make it down to Southampton that day then they would be delighted to look after her until the weekend. They were so fond of her”.

Sarah bought Cookie from a rescue centre in Forest Row for her son, Yolo, for his seventh birthday last year.

She said Yolo has always been “obsessed” with cats from the moment he could talk and even had an “imaginary cat” called Cookie before he owned his first pet.

After the phone call, Yolo jumped in the car with Sarah’s partner, Craig Woodman, and embarked on a four-and-a-half hour round trip to reunite with their “much-loved” cat.

Sarah said the good news has created “a storm” in Hanover. She said: “We put up posters everywhere so a lot of people in the community knew that she was missing. When I did the school run yesterday I received hugs from others who were relieved to hear Cookie is safe.”