Globetrotting cat registered to owners in Australia is found in Ireland

A globetrotting cat managed to somehow make its way from Australia to Northern Ireland.

The cat was found in County Armagh last week and brought to the attention of Cats Protection, and the organization sent a volunteer to pick up the animal.

"We received a phone call from a member of the public who'd found a cat out in their back garden who was really poorly. So we went out and picked him up, I didn't know if he was really sick or really old, he was just a bag of bones," said Gillian McMullen, an employee of Cats Protection.

The workers say it's likely the cat was brought to London by its owners, and it then somehow made its way to Northern Ireland.
      
The cat, called Tigger, was registered in Sydney, Australia.
      
"When we contacted the microchip company, that was when it all went crazy because we found out he was microchipped in Australia," McMullen said.

Tigger is in poor health, and Cats Protection began an effort to contact the cat's owners in a social media campaign that went viral.      

"The family...contacted me this morning via e-mail. We took some time to verify and authenticate the microchip number, and it is their cat," McMullen said.
      
The Cats Protection workers are hoping to be able to reunite the pet with its family in Australia as soon as possible.