Dotty Domino the cat mystified his owners when he went missing for two months - and finally turned up 70 miles away.

The one-year-old puss headed out of the big smoke and made for the seaside but no one knows how he managed to complete his incredible journey.

As a kitten, he spent months watching the planes take off from his home in Feltham, beneath the flight path of aircraft circling Heathrow.

On April 2 he took off in search of his own adventure, leaving his brother Liquorice and his owner Tracey Atkinson behind.

Tracey has owned Domino and Liquorice since they were six weeks old and was going out of her mind with worry.

She contacted all the vets in her area, telephoned animal centres and even walked the streets near her home until 2am in the morning.

Despite scouring the area, no one had any news of her cat.

That was until Monday, when Tracey and her two children, James, six, and Emily, four, were shocked to receive a telephone call from a vet in Brighton.

A couple who had been looking after the cat, thinking he was a stray, took him to Coastway veterinary clinic in Montague Place, Kemp Town, Brighton, for a check up, planning to adopt him.

A tiny ID microchip was spotted beneath his skin and a computer check revealed his true owner.

Tracey said: "I was spring cleaning at home, balancing on the bed with a duster, when my little boy James came running in with the phone.

"I nearly fell off the bed when the lady on the other end of the phone said, 'I've got your Domino here'. When she said he was in Brighton, I couldn't believe it. I have no idea how he could have got so far from home."

Tracey, who cannot drive, asked friends to bring her down to Brighton for an emotional reunion.

She said: "I'm so relieved to have him back and he is looking really well.

"The vet here that has been looking after him told me a local couple thought he was a stray and wanted to adopt him.

"I want to say a really big thank you to them for looking after him so well.

"I've heard they had grown really attached to him. I don't know how he got to Brighton, I guess we will never know but I want them to know how happy my children will be to have him home and his brother Liquorice too."

Vet Paul Lawrence, who cared for Domino, said: "About a quarter of all dogs and cats we see now are microchipped. We recommend to all our customers that they get it done.

"I think Tracey would agree it's a small price to pay to be reunited with a pet if it does get lost or strays."

The couple who wanted to adopt Domino were too upset to talk to us, having hoped he would become a new member of their family.