Often, when cats go missing, they make their way home themselves or are found nearby, but this isn’t always the case.
One cat in the UK was found 300 miles away months after disappearing. Luna went missing from her home in the town of Darlington, in the north of England, in November, and her mom Sophie Carty spent weeks looking for her.
Four months later, she received a call to say that Luna had been found alive and locked in a hotel shed – in Scotland. She had made her way to Inverness, a city in the Scottish Highlands, a six-hour drive away.
Luna was brought into surgery at Highland Vet Referrals, and they contacted Carty, letting her know that her beloved cat was doing well after surgery despite being thin and malnourished. The cat had an infection and suspected nerve damage, too.
“On her first couple of nights home, Luna was in a very bad way, very tired, and looked to be paralyzed on her back end," Carty said. "However, after a trip to the vets, antibiotics, and painkillers, she is like a new cat."
The vets were able to get in touch with Carty after they scanned Luna’s microchip to find her contact details, and Carty has since urged all pet parents to microchip their own pets.
She said, “It is so easy for cats to go walkabout, be picked up, or hop in the back of a van and travel miles. If it wasn't for her microchip, we would have never seen her again. Please make sure your details are up to date, because you never know when your cat might hitch a lift to visit Loch Ness."
She’s still unsure as to how Luna reached Inverness, however.
“We had theories of her hopping in a caravan or delivery van or the theory that she was stolen and was found to have been spayed then thrown out,’ she said.
“But I like to think she just fancied a little Highland holiday. We may never know how she managed to end up there, if only they could speak.”
In England, cats are required by law to be microchipped once they’re 20 weeks of age, with their parents’ contact details stored on one of a number of approved databases.
Most cats, of course, don’t wander quite as far as Luna. Here’s how to find a lost cat if you ever need to, and here are six reasons why cats run away from home
