KEY POINTS:
A two-year-old Wellington cat has been reunited with his family after going missing, having apparently hitched a ride about 20km away.
Toby was found in Point Howard, Eastbourne, eight days after leaving his home in the Wellington suburb of Northland, Wellington SPCA animal welfare inspector Ben Lakomy said.
A Point Howard resident called the SPCA to collect Toby after he had hung around for a week, and when the SPCA scanned him they found a microchip showing he was registered to a Northland address.
"It is such a long way he couldn't have walked there, so Toby must have got in someone's car or trailer and been taken for a ride," Mr Lakomy said.
Without a microchip, Wellington SPCA would have put up poster flyers around Point Howard, while Toby's family's efforts would have been focused on the Northland area.
"Only about 20 per cent of the owners of lost cats that come to Wellington SPCA are ever found," Mr Lakomy said.
- NZPA
