A cat has been reunited with his owner 15 years after he disappeared.

TJ went missing when he was around two-years-old but a few days ago he was taken to a vets in Gillingham needing urgent medical treatment.

The finder had been feeding the cat for around a year and a half but was unable to continue to care for him so asked the vet to put him down.

The vet instead was able to find a chip registered from 2009 and attempted to track the original owners by calling the numbers and door-knocking the previous address.

When unsuccessful they contacted Animals Lost and Found in Kent and asked if it could take over the care for TJ.

Charity founder Natasha McPhee agreed but asked if she could have the chip number and went hunting through her databases for reports of the missing felines and managed to find a few names and phone numbers.

Within two and a half hours Natasha was able to locate the owner on Facebook and got in touch.

She said: "The owner and her mum were in complete shock. She went 'No way. I thought he was dead.'

"She was really excited and in pieces. She went to see him and told me she burst out crying. He looks the same but he is now really old.

"That is a long time bless him. He looks like a proper gentleman."

TJ was extremely dehydrated and had an abscess on his neck that needed an operation. The 18-year-old puss is now on IV fluids and recovering at the surgery until he can go home.

Natasha told how the pet was found within a four mile radius of where he went missing in Gillingham.

"This should give people hope," she added. "There are so many people who have lost their animals for a long time, maybe they are dead or maybe they are still missing.

"People put posters up and go door-knocking, you go frantic but after a year that fizzles out. You do not keep looking for them.

"If you post another post or bump it back up, you never know. Someone may reply saying they saw them.

"You never know, a lot of the time the cats have just got a bit lost."