Ozzie the mystery globetrotting cat dies before being reunited with his owners
Ozzie the mystery cat, who made international headlines when he turned up in Ireland despite being registered in Australia, has passed away before he could be reunited with his owners.
The ginger cat generated wide interest when he was handed in to Armagh Cats Protection last month - and a scan for his microchip revealed he should have been in Australia.
Adding to the mystery was an unbelievable birth date in 1989 - making Ozzie ten years older than his life expectancy.
While many parts of Ozzie's mystery were solved over the coming weeks, it was too late for the worldly feline, as he passed away on Monday in Armagh from kidney failure.
After Australian media picked up the story, Armagh Cats Protection was able to reach his owners - who were themselves world travellers. They had brought the much-loved Tigger – Ozzie's real name – with them on their journeys to London and Ireland.
However, they left Tigger in the care of friends in Armagh - before he ran away, never to return. Much, much later, he was taken in by the cats protection group as Ozzie the Aussie.
His owners were also able to solve the mystery of his advanced age - a typo on his record, it seems, as he was born in 1999, not 1989.
"Some pieces of his tale remain unanswered but to us Ozzie will always be our Australian traveller who came to our care for a reason," the cats protection group wrote on Facebook.
"He spent his last days with us and it is with great sadness that on Thursday with our vets advise we had to let him go. He passed away in my arms knowing no fear, feeling no pain and surrounded by love."
One commenter on Facebook, apparently his owner from Australia, wrote: "Goodnight my baby boy. I tried to be there. I'm sorry .They told me it would have been too late.
"There wasn't a day that went passed without me thinking of you and Sydney. I remember the first day I saw you … thank you everyone for your lovely comments.
"Thank you Gillian and your dedicated staff, and thank you to the person that found him."
Ozzie will now make the journey of 19,000 km one more time, as his owners have asked for his ashes to be returned to Sydney.
