A family were "overwhelmed and overjoyed" as their missing cat returned home after 15 months out and about.

As the months ticked by, Stephanie Britton, who lives on a farm on Whissonsett Road feared the worst as her cat Tom had been missing for 15 months.

Every day felt strange without him, with his big personality and clumsy behaviour always bringing laughs and smiles.

On August 4, the 54-year-old received a call she was most grateful for from The Grove Vets in Fakenham saying that Tom had been handed in as a stray, but his microchip revealed that he had a home in Dereham.

The family got Tom and his brother Jerry as nine-week-old kittens from a friend of a friend back in 2018. She described Tom as the clumsy cat who loved to be fussed over.

Fakenham & Wells Times: Tom the cat who was handed to a Fakenham vet after he went missing for 15-months.Tom the cat who was handed to a Fakenham vet after he went missing for 15-months. (Image: Stephanie Britton)

Jerry was very much the same but he was more playful and independent.

“They both grew up from being kittens to cats with us and everyone who met them loved them,” she said.

Tom had gone missing in May 2020 for two weeks but came home. She said with the hot weather it was usual for them to go off for a short period of time and then come home.

Fakenham & Wells Times: Stephanie Britton from Dereham was reunited with her cat Tom after he had been missing for 15-months.Stephanie Britton from Dereham was reunited with her cat Tom after he had been missing for 15-months. (Image: Stephanie Britton)

A few days later he went missing again, and they would not see him for over a year.

The family put up posters around villages and on Facebook, offering a reward for his return. They also marked his microchip as missing, something that led to his safe return.

“We were so overwhelmed and overjoyed to hear that he had been found safe,” she said.

“We went to collect him immediately and he acted as if he had never left.

Fakenham & Wells Times: Tom the cat who was handed into a Fakenham vet after he went missing for 15-months.Tom the cat who was handed into a Fakenham vet after he went missing for 15-months. (Image: Stephanie Britton)

“When he went missing he was about a year and a half old, now he is three it feels so strange to have missed out on him growing and to see the difference in size is unbelievable.”

Sadly, Jerry also went missing several months after Tom. It has been about a year since they last saw him, he too is microchipped and posters are up around villages.

They have changed his microchip details to him being lost in the hope this will help bring him home.

Fakenham & Wells Times: Their other cat, Jerry, is sadly still missing.Their other cat, Jerry, is sadly still missing. (Image: Stephanie Britton)