Meet Ozzie, the wonder cat who turned up 17,000km from home

If Ozzie the cat could talk, we bet he’d have a few stories to tell.

The tough little moggie was picked up in Co Armagh last week, and was taken in by the Cats Protection Centre as a stray. When staff checked his microchip on their system though, they discovered that Ozzie was no local.

The ginger cutie was first registered by his owner in Australia way back in 2000, meaning he had somehow travelled more than 17,000km before he was spotted in someone’s garden looking a little worse for wear.

It’s thought the "incredibly handsome" young man may have travelled with his owner from Australia to England in 2004, as the records of one London vet show that he was seen as a stray around that time. However it’s not clear how the fantastic feline managed to make his way across the Irish Sea and into Northern Ireland.

Ozzie was seriously under-nourished when he was discovered, and an urgent hunt is on to find his owner as he is currently on a drip to help his failing kidneys. Plus, according to his records he is 25 years old, with the average cat (ie not Ozzie the wonder cat) only living to around 14 or 15.

Since the Armagh Cats Protection Centre posted about Ozzie’s mystery journey on their Facebook page, they have received more than 2,000 messages from cat lovers wanting to help out… but there’s no sign of his owner just yet.

All the same, staff say they have their “paws crossed” for the purrrrfect ending.