Joanne Day, 38, feared the worst for her five-year-old Bertie after he vanished from their home three months ago.
But the wayward moggy, from St Andrews, Fife recently befriended a cat-loving couple in Aberdeenshire and he was finally reunited with his hugely-relieved owners this week.
Joanne, who says Bertie has never wandered off before, feared he might have been hit by a car.
(Photo credit: SWNS)
The hairdresser thinks Bertie might have jumped in the back of a delivery lorry before being driven 65 miles to Stonehaven.
She said: "I think he might have stupidly gone into the back of a delivery lorry or something because the house where he was found is next to an industrial estate."
"It's not like him to wander off, so when he wasn't coming back I started to get worried.
"He is not the type of cat to go into other people's houses.
"He's soft as putty, so laid back he's almost horizontal, and he is a creature of habit.
"After about a week we started handing out leaflets to neighbours, but we thought he must have been hit by a car.
"We still kept looking, when we were out, you still always think is there a chance he could come back."
And to Joanne's disbelief, Bertie did come back, after the man he set up home with called his local Cats Protection group.
She added: "We are ecstatic he is home -- and so is he -- because we never thought we would see him again.
"Our dog Toffee and Bertie's sister Pip are glad he is home too."
(Photo credit: SWNS)
Stonehaven Cats Protection's lost and found officer Liz Sangster said Bertie's microchip was vital in returning him home.
She added: "We would encourage people to have their cats microchipped - it can make all the difference when they go missing.
"Even if a cat has not survived, we can trace the owners and give them some form of closure.
"He [Bertie] may have got inside a delivery van - but we'll never know.
"Thankfully, it was a happy outcome."
Bertie is settling back into family life well and Joanne is determined he won't be wandering off again.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here