He’s been missing for six long years but Butters the cat has now been reunited with his owner.

But where has he been all that time?

Owner Dawn Harvey would love to know.

The story of the friendly ginger cat’s disappearance began when Dawn and her family moved from Ballasalla to Ballabeg in October 2013.

’He escaped after a week in the new house,’ said Dawn .

’We searched but with bad storms, fireworks and not knowing his surroundings, he wouldn’t have a chance of finding his way back.

’I put up posters, searched every vet and rescue centre, I even brought poor dead kitties from the roadside in to be chip checked in case they were him, but never any trace.’

They moved back to Ireland in 2015 - where Butters had come from originally when they first moved to the Isle of Man in 2011.

’I always tracked the lost and found pages hoping he’d turn up,’ she said.

Butters, now aged 12, never left their thoughts. ’With the kids we came up with some crazy stories about where he might have been,’ she said.

’Has he been to the moon or round the world? I always said to the kids he’d turn up, but I didn’t believe it.’

Butters meanwhile was hanging out at Billown quarry since January where, Colas workers fed him. When Butters hurt his leg Brendan Murphy took him to Milan vets in Castletown.

He just happened to take him in on a Wednesday, the only day when Louise Ashton was at that clinic and not at the vet practice’s Douglas branch.

Louise checked his microchip and recognised it was missing Butters. The telephone code for Dawn in Ireland was missing, but as she knew Dawn (their children had been at school together) she tracked Dawn down through Facebook.

Dawn got the call to say he had turned up while on holiday in Spain.

’We were sitting on the patio, my husband got a shock because I started crying.

’At first I thought he was dead but Louise said: "No, he’s alive!"’.

They flew home the next day and at 5am the following day, Dawn set out from Tipperary to bring him home.

The reunion was very emotional and Butters seem to recognise Dawn straight away.

After 18 hours, she was back with Butters at his new home. Sadly, the cat he grew up with, Brian, had died the week before.

Dawn thanked all those involved or their part in this ’amazing’ story.

’For him to survive alone on an island he didn’t know on his own is so impressive.

’He maybe made it home (their old house at Ballasalla) and was half way there at the quarry.

’He’s not gone wild, some kind islander must have been feeding him. How he survived the quarry I don’t know.

’The circumstances are freaky.

’Anyone questioning microchipping should do it.’

Butters is settled in a very cosy part of the house - a bedroom where no cats were ever meant to be allowed - luxuriating on white bedding.

But the mystery remains. Where has Butters been? Is someone missing a friendly ginger cat with a lost look in his eye?