Pandora the cat is home in Aberdeenshire, six years after a road crash turned a house move into a disappearance.
In 2020, Billy and Mary Bowie were moving from Essex to Fraserburgh when Billy’s van crashed near Errol in Perthshire. Pandora’s carrier was thrown from the vehicle and she escaped. The family returned to search and followed up reported sightings, but nobody managed to catch her.
This year, a woman contacted Cats Protection about a cat repeatedly trying to enter her home. Volunteer Fiona Morrison went out, offered the very hungry visitor some food and scanned her microchip.
The registered address was around two and a half hours away in Fraserburgh. Usually, this would make a lead less convenient. After six years, it made it rather better.
Cats Protection called Mary on 9 August. Pandora stayed with the charity before Mary and Billy travelled to collect her a few days later. According to the family, she responded to her name immediately and retained a particular attachment to their grandson.
The details had remained current enough for the microchip to do its job. It could not explain where Pandora had spent the intervening years. She has apparently decided that part is private.
Source: BBC report by Ken Banks, syndicated by Yahoo News, published 21 September 2026, based on accounts from Pandora’s family and Cats Protection volunteer Fiona Morrison; checked 22 September 2026. The notification date was 9 August; the precise reunion date was not reported.