Mystery of Lost Cat Found 9,000 Miles From Home Finally Solved

The mystery of a lost cat who was found wandering 9,000 miles from its home in Australia has finally been solved.

Melvin the cat was found in Renfrewshire, Scotland, before he was picked up by the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). A local resident had been feeding the cat twice a day since Christmastime. However, they started to notice he was not looking well, the Scottish SPCA said in a press release.

After picking the cat up and giving him veterinary attention, the Scottish SPCA checked his microchip, only to find he was registered to an address all the way in Australia.

Laura McIntyre, Scottish SPCA chief inspector, said that one of the first things the charity does, when taking in a lost pet, is to check for a microchip.

"As you can imagine, the team were slightly confused when Melvin's details came back registered to an address in Australia," McIntyre said.

After some investigating, it turned out that Melvin belonged to a Scottish couple, Jacqueline and Matt Dick, who had lived in Australia for 14 years. They had recently made the move back home, spending $8,000 to transport Melvin, and their dog, to Scotland. However, Melvin went missing shortly after they settled into a new home, just eight weeks after moving, in August 2022.

Eventually, the Scottish SPCA helpers were able to reunite the cat with his owners.

"With assistance from Cats Protection, we were able to solve the mystery of Melvin's journey to Scotland and reunite him with his owners," McIntyre said.

Cats usually use their sense of smell to find their way back home. But occasionally they may become disoriented, or have an interaction with another feline that interrupts its journey.

"We were devastated when Melvin went missing. We did everything we could think of to try and find him, but by winter we feared the worst," Jacqueline Dick said in a press release from the Scottish SPCA. "We were over the moon when we received the call that he'd been found by the Scottish SPCA.

"The first night we got him home he didn't leave my side and was purring really loudly. I was in floods of tears as I never thought I'd see him again," she added. "We just want to say a big thank you to everyone who looked out for him while he was missing and helped get him back home where he belongs."

This isn't the first adventure Melvin has had. During his time in Australia, he was caught up in a fight with a dingo, a type of wild dog. Luckily, he survived the ordeal, using up only one of his nine lives.

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