Two cat owners who live in Gravesend and Deptford were reunited with their missing moggy eight years after she disappeared from their London home and was found in Paris.

Marna Gilligan and Sean Purdy, who were a couple when they adopted black-and-white cat Moon Unit, were shocked to be contacted by a Parisian cat rescue who said they had found their pet.

Moon Unit was found wondering by the railway in Paris eight years after she vanished from their house in Bermondsey during a New Years’ Eve party.

She was taken to a rescue centre where they traced her owners through her old microchip, even though the information was out-of-date.

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Sean Purdy bringing Moon Unit back from France. Photo: Marna Gilligan.

Ms Gilligan, who lives in a boat in the Embankment Marina in Albion Parade, said: "After the first month or two of searching, we pretty much resigned ourselves to never seeing little Moon Unit again.

"I liked to imagine that she had a new family somewhere, because I couldn't bear to think of her sleeping on the streets, or worse.

"I was completely amazed when we got the email about her being found.

"Eight and a half years later, and a different country!"

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Moon Unit. Photo: Marna Gilligan.

She wrote on a fundraising page for the Parisian rescue centre: “We thought she was gone for good. I told myself that she'd found a lovely new family and was living the catty high life.

“Fast forward to this summer. We got an email from the microchipping people.

“A cat has been found in France  - a cat rescue group picked her up when rescuing strays. Is she ours?

“It seems impossible - but a quick exchange of photos proves that it is indeed the same cat.

"We'll never know how she got to France, but she's coming home on the ferry from Calais.”

Ms Gilligan and Mr Purdy, who has since moved to Deptford, are  fundraising for the rescue centre, L’association d’Aide et de Défense des Animaux en Détresse, (ADAD) to thank them for going above and beyond to reunite them with their cat.

Moon Unit will go to live in Deptford with Mr Purdy, as Ms Gilligan kept one of Moon Unit’s kittens, Roswell.