A cat named Padfoot finally came home last week after seven long lost years! From integrating into a caravan park to reuniting with his former family, Padfoot’s homecoming is a reminder that not all that’s gone is forever lost.
Cape Town, South Africa (06 March 2025) — It’s been a very happy time for a family in Cape Town who, as of last week, were finally reunited with their long-lost cat Padfoot! Padfoot’s epic homecoming came seven long years following the day he ran away.
Saved by the Birds
Once a tiny, malnourished kitten roaming the streets of Dubai back in 2009, Padfoot’s life changed forever when Cathy Bird’s youngest daughter Kira found him next to a dirt truck one day. Thereafter, it wasn’t long until Padfoot became an important member of the Bird family.
When the Birds relocated to South Africa, Padfoot made the big move with them.
However, three years later, the family got a new puppy. As the puppy grew, it seemed Padfoot disliked it more and more until one day, he’d had enough and ran away.
Finding Padfoot
Despite extensive searching, Padfoot was nowhere to be found. Weeks turned to months and months to years. The Birds never forgot their spirited cat and often wondered how he was doing, even double checking every time they saw cats that resembled Padfoot.
Seven long years marched on. Unbeknownst to the family, Mr Padfoot had set up a new way of life for himself at a nearby caravan park where he survived largely thanks to residents like Sandra Brice van Eyk and others who made sure he ate.
Padfoot often found solace in Sandra’s home on cold days and even made himself quite comfortable by sleeping in her bed.
Despite the new bonds Padfoot formed, the day came when someone in the area eventually asked the TEARS Community Cat Project to catch the big male.
“We assumed he would be an aggressive, unneutered male but when we got him, we saw that he had been neutered and he had a microchip,” she says. “Initially, we couldn’t track the chip as it had been done in Dubai,” said Claire Shadbolt, TEARS Animal Rescue’s Cattery Coordinator.
Claire then decided to share photos of the cat on all the animal groups and community pages in a bid to narrow down the search for his original family.
Tara Bird, Kira’s sister, sent Claire a message and soon made her way to the vet with the microchip number to see if it really was Padfoot.
“She was delighted,” says Claire. “He’d been living about 50m away all this time, being fed by Sandra and another neighbour. The family couldn’t believe it!”
“I look onto the caravan park and I wonder if Padfoot ever sat in those trees looking back at me,” Cathy Bird shared.
At this point, Cathy still lived in the same house they’d all moved to. But, things had changed since the dog Padfoot didn’t agree with had since passed away.
For Cathy, Padfoot’s homecoming felt like regaining a long-lost family member as her husband had also passed away.
The family couldn’t be more delighted, as is the Community Cat Project, which emphasises Padfoot’s story as another case-in-point in which microchipping saved the day.
You can sponsor the sterilization and a microchip of a stray animal that will be adopted through TEARS here.
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