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Missing cat found in Coventry - 300 miles from home

CATS PROTECTION/PA WIRE Cara McBurnie holds Beans the cat - both look into the camera. Cara is blonde, with blue eyes and is smiling, wearing a black jacket and dark coloured top underneath. Beans is mainly white, with ginger patches and yellow eyes. They are standing in a doorway with a green trim around the door and bricks to the side.CATS PROTECTION/PA WIRE
Beans travelled more than 300 miles from his home in Cumbernauld to Coventry

A cat that disappeared from its home in Scotland has turned up more than 300 miles away in Coventry.

Cara and Colin McBurnie spent hours looking for Beans to no avail after he vanished from his home in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire in late October.

The couple were stunned to receive a call from charity Cats Protection weeks later informing them the ginger and white feline had been identified from his microchip in the West Midlands after sleeping in an outdoor cat box.

They said they had “no idea” how he ended up south of the border after a 600-mile round trip to bring him home.

CATS PROTECTION/PA WIRE Beans the cat, white and ginger, sitting on the lap of Colin McBurnie, who is wearing a dark t-shirt and grey jeans. He is sitting in the driver's seat of a car. On the dashboard, a GPS screen is lit up in a green colour. Cara McBurnie is stroking Beans just above his front left leg. She is blonde and is wearing a grey hoodie with a red and black striped lanyard around her neck.CATS PROTECTION/PA WIRE
Mr and Ms McBurnie completed a 600-mile round trip to bring Beans home

Ms McBurnie, 40, said Beans loves to be outdoors and in gardens - and had gone out as normal on the day he disappeared.

She said: "We searched and searched, looking everywhere. I've been out every day looking but thought something must have happened to him.

"I didn't really expect to see him again but joined lots of local lost-and-found Facebook pages, then further afield in Scotland.

"I didn't think to look in England, I didn't imagine he could have gone that far."

Beans was spotted by Kelly Ryan, who noticed a cat “hanging around” an outdoor cat box.

She said she saw him sleeping in the box one night and he returned the following evening.

Ms Ryan later put a post on Facebook after becoming concerned he may be lost and was contacted by Cats Protection, who sent out a volunteer to check for and scan his microchip.

Ms Ryan said: “I didn't feed him straight away as I thought he was probably owned, then one night saw him sleeping in the cat box and he was still there the next day, then the one after that.

"I just gave him a few biscuits to start with but heard he was going to visit other neighbours too and it felt like he was around too much and that something wasn't quite right."

"I was so relieved when he had a chip and a loving family who had registered him as missing.”

CATS PROTECTION/PA WIRE Beans and Missy, which are cats, eating from bowls on a wooden floor. Beans is white, with large ginger patches on his body and a ginger tail. Missy is to his right and is mainly white with a large heart-shaped patch on her lower back. She has a dark tail.CATS PROTECTION/PA WIRE
Ms McBurnie said her other cat, Missy, was pleased to have Beans back home

The owners were called by Cats Protection, and packed up their car for the trip.

Ms McBurnie was “shocked and relieved” to find Beans was not only alive, but grateful to come back home.

"When we got him back, we let him out in the car for a cuddle then put him back in his carrier for the long journey,” she said.

"We were all exhausted and he slept in the bed all night by my husband. Even my other cat, Missy, was happy to see him - they usually keep a bit of a distance but had a nice moment and a sniff together.

"I'm so glad we had him microchipped and updated his record. There's no way he'd have come back to us otherwise."

Madison Rogers, Cats Protection associate director of advocacy, campaigns and external affairs, said: "It's a real testament to the power of the microchip that Beans could be reunited with his owners just 24 hours after being scanned.

"Without a chip it's unlikely Beans would ever have found his way back to the family who love him so much."