Mollie the miracle cat returns after four adventurous years

The same cat who had been missing for four years.

Mollie, now nine, is getting as many cuddles and treats as she wants, as well as a brand new collar.

Ms Edwards said she got the voicemail on April 23 and had to pull over to properly hear the message, where the caller "nonchalantly" said Mollie had been picked up.

"I had to listen to it again because I was like 'did I just hear that correctly?'" she said.

"I was absolutely bawling my eyes out."

Mollie, then five-years-old, went missing on a weekend in May 2020 when Ms Edwards pulled out the dreaded vacuum, which Mollie "hated".

Mollie was an indoor and outdoor cat and would often roam around before returning home at Miners Rest in the evening.

"She used to go outside all day, she was pretty adventurous, it would be often we would have to bring her in for the night," Ms Edwards said.

"We'd be out the front calling and calling."

However, this time, Mollie was no where to be found.

Ms Edwards said she posted to every Facebook group, put out countless missing posters, offered a reward, physically searched for Mollie for hours and even went to radio to see if anyone had seen her beloved pet, but to no avail.

"I was distraught," she said.

Ms Edwards said she even left Mollie's litter tray in the garage for a year, hoping for the cat to return, but later "fully grieved" for Mollie, thinking she'd died.

It would be four years later when Ms Edwards got the call from Ballarat Animal Shelter saying they'd picked up Mollie from Grevillea Road in Wendouree.

"That's all we know," she said, about her cat's journey.

"Mollie was a bit thin, she had a couple of fleas and her tummy was a bit bloated and a bit anaemic. But considering it was four years, I feel like she must have been taken care of by someone for at least some of the time."

Mollie is also known as "Princess".

"She does what she wants, when she wants and that's it," Ms Edwards said.

"She's a boss bitch is probably how we describe her."

Mollie, while adventurous, is a shy cat, so Ms Edwards assumed she'd been hit by a car or gotten stuck somewhere.

"She's not the type of cat to just go and make herself comfortable at somebody else's house," she said.

Ms Edwards adopted two more cats, Rue and Ginny, over the four years.

But Ms Edwards said she's more than fine with lots of animals, but bringing Mollie back in was a challenge with other cats.

After four years, the now nine-year-old cat, happily returned to sleeping on Ms Edwards' bed, snuggling and purring, like nothing happened.

"We've had Mollie in our bedroom so she can rest and recover," she said.

"She's had so many treats. She can have whatever she wants, whenever she wants."

The Edwards household also has a blue heeler, Lottie, who was only five months old when Mollie went on her long adventure.

And in another change, Ms Edwards had moved recently to a new home.

She said it was good because it was a bigger home and they now had more animals.

Ballarat Animal Shelter was able to contact Ms Edwards because Mollie is microchipped.

"It was 100 per cent the microchip that got her back to me," she said.

Mollie refused to comment on her whereabouts over the past four years.