Kirton family are reunited with their cat Tink after a decade apart

A cat has been reunited with her owners - after a decade apart.

Gemma and Nick Massingham last saw Tink the cat in 2014 when she went off one day and never returned.

Despite putting up posters and searching around their Kirton home - even years later - they never received word of Tink…until yesterday (Tuesday, August 20).

Within half-an-hour of getting a phone call that Tink had been handed in at the vets, the couple were picking her up and bringing her home.

Gemma said: “It was an emotional day.

“The vets warned us that she was not going to be the same cat and that she might be skittish and nervous. She knew my husband straight away and went straight to him and was purring.

“She was very calm and let us pet her and she was purring. We didn’t expect that.

“Everyone is so happy, we are sad to have missed ten years of her life but the fact is she is here and in full health.”

Gemma says that Tink had initially gone missing for six months earlier in 2014 but had been found by her husband in nearby Sutterton.

She said: “I saw her on my way to work and rang my husband. He drove there and called her and the next day she came home.”

Tink remained at home for three months before going missing again.

Gemma said: “We continued to look for her. I was pretty sure that she would be able to survive as she was always bringing home birds and mice.

“We were going around the village and calling for her. We did that every day for months even up until a couple of years ago my husband would walk around and call for her. He never gave up.

“I had a lot of sleepless nights thinking that she might be hurt.”

As Gemma and Nick were about to move when they first got Tink as a kitten, the couple registered her microchip to Gemma’s parent’s home.

Yesterday, Gemma received a phone call from her mum about Tink, who had been named by daughter Mia, who is now aged 20.

Gemma, who is also mum to nine-year-old Reggie and Archie, 13, said: “We found out at 12.30pm and I was picking her up at 1.15pm.

“She was my daughter’s cat. She was at a Taylor Swift concert yesterday, I rang her to say Tink had been found and she started crying. I had to pick her up to bring her back to see Tink at 4am.”

Tink had been living around the Black Bull in Kirton since Christmas where staff had been feeding and keeping an eye on her. However, with winter around the corner, they felt it was best to take the elderly cat to the vets to see if they could find her home.

Gemma said: “I think that someone had taken her in and maybe they passed away and she became homeless.

“She had been seen at the Black Bull for the last eight or nine months. She had created a bed in a hedge and someone was going back every day to make sure she was ok.”

While Tink is older with a little arthritis, the vets say that she has all her teeth and is in good health.

Gemma says that Tink is getting used to being part of the family once more.

She said: “Tin has a bed and food and seems very comfortable. She is happy to see us - she purrs and comes to see us.”