A woman who lost her 13-year-old cat in 2023 had started to give up hope she would ever see him again–until she got a message on her two-year-old Facebook post.
Dee Eaton, 55 and from Lenham in Kent, England, let her “lovable, friendly, big, fluffy” cat, Marmalade, outside after dinner one evening in 2023, “and that was the last anyone saw of him,” she told Newsweek.
When he didn’t come home that night, she knew something was wrong, as he had “never wandered off far from the house.” Marmalade wasn’t chipped, as it hadn’t been compulsory in the U.K. at the time, and she immediately started the search. First checking neighbors’ sheds and garages in case he had been accidentally shut in, and then resorting to multiple local Facebook sites with photos and descriptions of him, but to no avail.
“After a couple of months of not seeing him, I thought perhaps he had taken himself off somewhere to pass over, maybe it was his time,” she said. “I missed Marmalade terribly.”
In the U.K., it’s common for cats to be allowed to roam, with many animal shelters only offering cat adoption to homes with gardens or outdoor space for them to explore. There are some exceptions, such as a health issue or disability, where it’s recommended to keep the cat indoors, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).
Marmalade had been a source of joy and comfort for Eaton and her son for years, with both enjoying a “bond” with him. This was particularly important during a health emergency in 2021, where Eaton was paralyzed and put into a coma after contracting the rare virus Guillain-Barré Syndrome. After four months in hospital, Eaton returned home to Marmalade, who wouldn’t leave her side–“it was like he was looking after me.”
The months and years passed, and two more cats joined Eaton’s family: ginger rescue Larry, and black kitten Dottie. But on September 27, 2025, everything changed when a message appeared on Eaton’s phone from a woman named Kathleen Lake, “asking me if my ginger cat was still missing.”
Eaton recalled: “The lady said that a cat matching Marmalade’s description was wandering around near where she lived in Barming. Barming is about 30 to 40 minutes away from where I live.”
“I didn’t think it could be Marmalade for one minute,” she admitted. Marmalade has a very distinctive feature: two deformed ears, a result of surgery for ear infections years ago. So she explained this to Lake, expecting the woman to say it wasn’t Marmalade after all.
But instead, Lake “came back with photos of a ginger cat with two deformed ears, [and] the pattern markings on his fur looked exactly like Marmalade. I couldn’t believe it.”
Lake told Newsweek she had spotted the cat on her walk to the store for lunch and noticed how unusual he looked. When she got home, she Googled “ginger cat deformed ears” to “show my mom what this gorgeous cat looked like”—and when she searched the phrase, Eaton’s missing advert from two years ago showed up. “I clicked the link and got in touch … and we met up the day after–and it was him.”
Eaton explained they went to the area and asked local residents about a ginger cat with unusual ears, and were told he was “often seen around, looking for food and fuss”–but no one knew “who this cat belonged to, or if it was a stray.”
“I started making the noise I used to when calling him in for his food, calling Marmalade,” Eaton said—and then there he was, walking down the path towards his owner, and she knew instantly it was him.
“I picked him up and cuddled him, he snuggled into me. I could not believe I had finally found him again,” she said, admitting “a few tears were shed” at the reunion.
They brought him straight to the vet, where they found he was chipped to owners in the local area, and they had called him Bob. Eaton admitted to being “distraught at the thought of losing him all over again” when she learned he had new owners—but when they got in touch, Bob’s owner “was very nice, and said if it was indeed Marmalade the missing cat, then he should rightfully go back to his home.”
Together, they pieced together Marmalade’s story over the past few years: after the cat walked out of Eaton’s home, he was spotted by an industrial estate and taken in by one of the units, who fed him and built a shelter to keep him out of the rain, thinking he was a stray and affectionately calling him Bob. When the business moved to Barming, they took the ginger cat with them—but when they moved on again, Bob was left behind, being cared for by the community, until one family decided to officially take him in as their own. That was, until Eaton found him again.
“Obviously, this is an emotional time for the previous owners who have looked after Marmalade for a couple of months, and I have expressed my gratitude for looking after him,” Eaton said, adding that they have agreed to keep in touch.
“But now it’s time for Marmalade to be back home, napping on the chairs, in the warm, having his food served to him instead of out wandering,” she said. “I took Marmalade home to meet his new cat family. My son had an emotional FaceTime with Marmalade too.”
Lake told Newsweek the moment Eaton and Marmalade were reunited thanks to her Facebook message “felt amazing. Everyone was crying when he melted into her arms again. I was so happy it was him.”
That Facebook post has now lit up again, two years after Eaton initially created it, as she issued a happy update: “FOUND AFTER 2 YEARS MISSING.”
With Lake’s initial reach out visible in the comments, animal lovers flocked to the post, awarding it more than 2,500 likes as they celebrated the reunion, one writing it was “absolutely fantastic news,” and another calling it a “miracle.”
“Just fantastic,” another said. “My boy has been missing 11 weeks, so I won’t give in.”
Eaton hopes her and now-15-year-old Marmalade’s story helps others, as she put it to Newsweek: “I say to others that are missing their fur babies, please don’t ever give up hope that one day they may too be found.”
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