Missing moggy 'caught lift with Tesco van'

"We think he caught a lift with a Tesco van," explained disbelieving owner Niamh O'Mahony after a manic morning.

"It was a lovely place he ended up, the little pr*ck."

Archie's tale began back on April 22 after Niamh let him out for his nightly ablutions.

"He's not a strayer and has never stayed out for the whole night, so when we woke up the next morning and my husband said 'where's the cat?' I knew straightaway that something was up."

Niamh frantically searched for the three-year old feline, sticking up posters in the neighbourhood and launching an online appeal via the Facebook page Limerick Animal Welfare, from where Archie had come to the O'Mahonys when only a few weeks old.

"Heartbroken without him," she wrote on Facebok.

"He's friendly but wary of strangers. He has never strayed before. Real creature of habit."

Despite a few false leads - one of which lead Niamh's husband to spend most of a night waiting in a dark, wet neighbour's garden for a cat that turned out not to be Archie, there was no sign of the runway furball, much to the disappointment of Niamh's three kids.

"My youngest was like 'when Archie comes back we're going to do this and that' but by the weekend just gone I'd pretty much given up hope of ever seeing him again.

Until this morning.

"I got a message from a woman who said she had been feeding a cat in her garden for the past week, but the house was so far away I didn't think it could ever be Archie," Niamh said.

"But she sent me a picture on Facebook and I thought 'I just have to check it'.

"I was walking over the bridge into town, pulled in to look at the picture and couldn't believe it was Archie."

By all accounts, it was an emotional reunion when Niamh's father dropped her out to pick up Uncle Travelling Cat.

"The house was down a side road in Castleconnell, off the dual-carriageway… I went into the garden and just gave a whistle and out he bounced, bold as brass and delighted to see us.

"I was bawling, my father was bawling, we were all bawling - it's been a mental morning."

Archie Cat is home and gone to bed pic.twitter.com/eUOLghp3xj

— Jennifer Canesten (@JennferCanesten) May 6, 2014

Niamh paid tribute to Barbara O'Connell, Archie's minder for the time he was missing, but says it's a mystery how he ended up so far from home.

"There's a Tesco distribution centre in Coonagh and you'd often see their vans around our area," she mused.

"We use the online delivery service sometimes and so does the lady who rescued him, so my dad reckons he hopped in the Tesco van and ended up miles away."

Niamh says that the family are overjoyed to have him back but are keeping a close eye on him.

He's now home safe fast asleep after an amazing adventure," she said.

It's better than winning the Lotto to have him home.

"But he's grounded now."