Pet owners Pete and Caroline Hunt were delighted to be reunited last week with their Bengal cat they had thought had been shot by a farmer.

Seven-year-old Bilbo Baggins went missing while Mr and Mrs Hunt, of Bath Road, Devizes, were attending an archery competition near Taunton.

They had taken Bilbo, their other cat Phoebe and silver Seabright bantam Tinkerbell with them in their caravan.

But when they arrived at the caravan site on August 5, things did not go well because there were some men shooting at a nearby farm.

Mr Hunt said: “There was a very loud bang from a shotgun very close to us.

“Bilbo isn’t used to noise like that and he ran off. As we had only just arrived at the site, Bilbo didn’t know his way around and must have got lost.

“I asked around all over the place to see if anyone had seen him. When I asked the farmer, he said, well, if he came in here I’d put him down.”

The Hunts returned home with an empty cat box and heavy hearts.

Mrs Hunt said: “I thought we’d never see him again. Then someone from these vets in Taunton rang last Thursday and said did we have a Bengal cat.

“I said yes, but we lost him. She replied, we’ve got him here. I was so overjoyed I didn’t know what to say.”

Mrs Hunt had to drive to Taunton to pick up Bilbo. She said: “When I saw him he was very thin. Apparently, he had gone into this woman’s house through the window and she had fed him.

“She took him to her local vets and they read his microchip. Unfortunately, we hadn’t updated our address with the microchipping company but they managed to contact Estcourt House Vets in Devizes and they put them in touch with us.

“Bilbo walked straight up to me, put his little head on my sleeve and purred. I can’t tell you how delighted I was.”

Ed Davies at Estcourt House Vets said: “This shows how valuable it is to get your pet microchipped. But you must tell the microchipping company of any change of address. Fortunately, we had the Hunts’ contact details, which we were able to give the Taunton vets.”