LONDON — A cat that went missing during a New Year's Eve party at the start of 2007 has been reunited with her owners after an eight-and-a-half year absence.

The brilliantly named Moon Unit disappeared from Marna Gillian and Sean Purdy's home in London only to somehow turn up again in Paris this summer.

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"We had a NYE party eight and a half years ago," the 39-year-old Gillian told Mashable. "She must have slipped out at some point? We spent ages searching for her, postering/leafleting/phoning around etc. But no cat!"

Here's a picture of Moon Unit before she ran away. Image: marna gillian

Flash forward to late June 2016, when Gillian received a very unexpected email from an animal rescue charity — ADAD — based in France.

"We got an email about a month ago saying that a cat had been found in Paris and they'd traced us by her microchip," she explained. "I didn't believe it was her — I thought it would be a mistake — until we exchanged photographs.

"She's got a really distinctive stripe on her nose, so as soon as we saw the photo we knew we'd found her."

Moon Unit in 2016. Image: marna gillian

Gillian said she was both astounded and delighted to find Moon Unit again.

"She was found in Essonne, a suburb south of Paris," Gillian explained. "We have no idea how she got there. Our best guesses are that she stowed away, or found a new family, was brought over by them, and then ran away? The stowaway theory seems the most likely i think.

"She didn't get there legally, we do know, because her microchip would have been checked in that case."

Gillian and her ex partner travelled to Paris together to collect Moon Unit last weekend.

"The rescue people sorted out her pet passport, and last Friday myself and my ex got the Eurostar to Paris and stayed overnight," said Gillian. "Her rescuers brought her to our hotel the next morning, and drove us to the station. Then we got the TGV to Calais, where some friends met us with a car for the ferry home."

Moon Unit travelling home. Image: marna gillian

Since Moon Unit has returned home, Gillians says she's been doing quite well.

"Lots of purring, and she's been eating/sleeping/doing all the normal cat things. She's mellowed a bit too — she was a fierce little cat when I first knew her."

To make the whole story even stranger, Moon Unit was pregnant when her owners first took her in as a stray all those years ago. One of Moon Unit's (now grown) kittens still lives with Gillian.

They're holding off on that reunion until Moon Unit has settled in a bit.

"We haven't reunited them yet," Gillian explained. "Moon Unit is living with my ex while she settles back into a normal life. We thought being a solo cat for a while would be easier for her.

"She's had a tough time, poor mog, and needs to recover."

Gillian is currently running a Crowd Funding page page to raise money for the charity that found Moon Unit. It has already raised well over £1,000.