PEPPER the travelling tom is home safe and well after 409 days on the run.

The 11-year-old white-and-ginger cat failed to appear through his cat flap in Kents Bank on February 26 last year for his teatime bowl of biscuits.

Pepper's baffled owners, Kirsten and Ian Ross, had given up all hope of seeing the vanished feline again after numerous missing posters, Facebook appeals and daily look-outs by Grange-over-Sands' postmen drew a blank.

But to their astonishment they returned from holiday in New Zealand on Saturday to find Pepper curled up on their bed, looking none the worse for his 58-week disappearance.

"I couldn't speak for a whole minute," said Kirsten, 62. "My jaw just dropped. I couldn't believe it. I just scooped him up and cuddled him and I couldn't put him down. It was a wonderful homecoming."

Pepper's reappearance against the odds began with several sightings of a stray cat by a concerned Oxenholme villager, who contacted the RSPCA. It was Westmorland branch chairman Alan Green who scanned Pepper's microchip at his cattery and telephoned Kirsten and Ian's son, Gillon, to share the good news.

Kirsten told the Gazette: "When we got back from New Zealand my son said, I've got a bit of a surprise for you, and he took us into the bedroom and there he was."

The RSPCA's Alan Green said he has never known a cat turn up safe and sound after such a long absence. "It's a very good advert for microchipping," he told the Gazette, explaining that owners could have their cats chipped by the RSPCA in return for a donation, by calling 07743-6044599.

He believes that Pepper must have accidentally stowed away from Kents Bank in a lorry or van, then survived by hunting and scavenging for food. "He was very hungry but, apart from that, not particularly thin - in good nick.

"It's a happy ending for a 12-year-old cat missing for a year."

Delighted owner Kirsten now has four cats to feed, including nearly-blind Bailey, who she says "pined" for his long-lost companion, as well as two cats she adopted while Pepper was missing.

Kirsten said Pepper, who turns 12 on April 30, was settling in nicely back at home and had been hanging around the fridge for titbits. Keen to promote the benefits of microchipping, she has given a donation to the RSPCA in gratitude for Pepper's safe return. She also hopes that keen-eyed Gazette readers will recognise Pepper's distinctive markings - including a heart-shaped bright ginger patch - and be able to piece together his whereabouts during his lengthy vanishing act.