Pet cat travels 300 miles, is returned

Microchipping allowed a cat in England to be reunited with its owners after it disappeared for three weeks, the cat’s owners said.

Cindy and Tim Whitbread of the Isle of Wight, England, got a telephone call from Chris Archibald of the Yorkshire resort of Whitby — 300 miles away — to say she had Geoffrey, their cat, the Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

The Whitbreads said they believe Geoffrey, a Bengal cat, must have jumped into the luggage compartment of one of the many vehicles that stop to pick up tourists from their area’s hotel and bed-and-breakfasts, and then ridden for about 10 hours to Whitby, in the north of England.

At least he went somewhere lovely. It has made it a whole lot nicer to come and pick him up, said Cindy Whitbread.

Geoffrey was discovered in a Whitby field by Archibald’s son, Zac, 10, who brought the cat home.

We put posters up and asked around the village in the hope of finding his owners. After a couple of days we took him to the vet to see if he was chipped, said Archibald. I thought I was hearing things when they scanned him and found out he was from the Isle of Wight.