Four years later, after the Smyth family had given up hope, they received a surprising call: “We found your cat, Blueberry.”
Blueberry, the beloved black cat who disappeared from their home in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, in November 2019, was discovered last week in County Galway, in western Ireland.
A man in Moycullen village noticed a sickly stray cat outside the SuperValu supermarket and took him to the local vet on February 6th.
“He had cat flu,” explained Rachael Russell, a veterinary nurse at the clinic. “He was calm but very friendly. He seemed to be in pain and tense but still craved human attention.”
The cat had a tiny chip inside him that holds information, but when the vets checked the database of pets in Ireland, they didn’t find anything about him. Then they tried another database called Europetnet, which includes information from 26 European countries, and they found a match in the UK.
They found out his name was Blueberry, he was 10 years old, and he had started his adventure four years ago, more than 150 miles away.
The Smyth family didn’t expect the call at all. “We had given up hope and thought he was gone forever, but then my mom got a call from someone in the south,” said Hannah Smyth to the Belfast Telegraph. “They said: ‘We found your Blueberry.’ She couldn’t believe it. We all thought it couldn’t be possible.”
The Smyth family brought their pet back home this week, and it was a very happy reunion. “We’re still in disbelief. It’s amazing,” said Smyth. “He recognized us right away; when the girls brought him out, he started rubbing his head against us.” “He seemed a bit confused when we first saw him, but now he’s back to his usual self.”
Libby Porter, who helps with a group that rescues and finds new homes for pets in north Down, said this story highlights how important it is to have pets microchipped and to keep the information updated. “We’ve had pets come back after two years, but this one definitely beats that.”
