AFTER 18 months missing, Shannon Peters thought she would never see her cat Lexi-Lou again.

However, thanks to an up-to-date-microchip and the generosity of a Roseworthy family, the pair have been reunited.

Ms Peters, a veterinary nurse, said Lexi-Lou had gone missing from her former Redbanks property but was recently found wandering a farm in Roseworthy, some 20 kilometres away.

“I got a phone call two weeks ago from the Greencross Vets in Gawler that a lady out on a farm had a stray cat hanging around her house,” she said.

“The lady was a horse breeder, so she had a microchip scanner at her house, and was able to scan the cat and call the vet with her microchip number and then they were able to look up on the database and contact me from that.

“I just couldn’t believe she had been found.”

Ms Peters said Lexi-Lou recognised her straight away, as well as the family dogs, once taken home.

“She’s always been quite affectionate, she’s just not affectionate with strangers,” she said.

“Even at the other (Redbanks) house, if a friend came over she would hide, but she seems to have come out of her shell a lot.”

“She was actually in really good health, as well.

“I took her to work the next day and her teeth were fine, she didn’t have fleas or anything like that.

“She has stayed really well-nourished, which is surprising.”

Ms Shannon, who works at Greencross Vets Para Vista, said she is very grateful to the lady who took the time to gain Lexi-Lou’s trust so as she could be scanned for a microchip, and said she encouraged others to not always dismiss roaming animals as feral.

It is also important to keep microchip details up-to-date.

“If you do have a stray cat hanging around, you can take it into a vet clinic and get it scanned,” she said.

“The amount of times we do have cats in here (is often) and we are able to reunite them with their families because of microchips.”