A CAT which went missing for 15 weeks has made Christmas for the second time for its owners.

BJ the tortoiseshell first arrived at Susan and Alan Hodges’ door on Christmas Day 2012, when the couple were living in Barbados.

The kitten was a tiny mewing scrap of fluff no bigger than a hamster, and desperate for food, says Susan.

Thinking it was a boy initially, they named it Baby Jesus, and fed it turkey and cream.

BJ stayed with Alan and Susan and returned with them to the UK in 2013, spending 11 weeks at a cattery before moving into their home in Liskeard.

The playful and affectionate puss became a treasured member of the family for Susan, 57, and Alan, 71.

All was well until early September of this year, when the Hodges decided to take a short break to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.

On the way to the cattery in Merrymeet, disaster struck, as BJ escaped from a new cat box that had not been properly secured.

Susan and Alan’s mini-break was ‘a blur’ says Susan as the distraught couple worried about their pet.

On their return, they made up posters and flyers, and leafleted all the houses within a radius of the cattery.

A social media campaign was started, a reward was offered, and Susan took out an ad in the Cornish Times.

As the weeks went by, reports of a cat with markings like BJ were made at a farm in Merrymeet.

The Hodges purchased a humane trap, and farmers Liz and Nigel Bunkum obligingly set the trap in their barn and loaded it each night with food.

For four weeks BJ remained elusive – although the neighbour’s big ginger tom took the bait on more than one occasion.

Then on Monday, the Hodges received the call they had been awaiting for for so long.

Susan said: ‘I dashed over and sure enough it was her. I burst into tears and hugged Liz. BJ has not left my side for 48 hours.’

Susan says she is grateful to Bernie and Marie at Oaktree Cattery, who helped publicise their appeal, and to the Bunkums who ‘were absolutely fantastic’.

BJ is now settling back into her normal life – and getting used to two new ‘brothers’.

‘After seven weeks we were so lonely without BJ that we got two more rescue cats,’ said Susan.

‘She growled a few times at first….but they’re all coming round to each other.’