Rupert is Home After Train Trip & 3 Month Long Adventure

Rupert the cat disappeared from his West Melbourne, Australia home in February of this year, and turned up in another city over 100 miles away. Thanks to his microchip, he returned home on Monday.

Bec Gilchrist raised Rupert from the time she found him as a kitten, dumped in a garbage bin, and described the ginger tabby to the Victoria paper The Age as “an easily-spooked homebody.”

When Rupert went missing on February 18, Bec made up posters posters and distributed 200 missing cat notices to her neighbors as part of the search, but there were no leads. The petmom had nearly given up hope when she received a call a few days ago telling her Rupert had been found.

Bec says she nearly ran her car off the road when she learned where Rupert had gotten himself to. The call came from the Latrobe City Council pound, telling her that Rupert had been found in the city of Traralgon, about 102 miles away from her home.

The pound staffer figured that Rupert must have boarded the daily paper-mill train that runs between West Melbourne and Latrobe Valley. He came to the pound last week after being trapped after a local resident complained about him hanging around.

Rupert was in good shape when found, other than having lost some weight.

He is settling in well back at home, where he has been reunited with the family’s Dalmation dog, Poppy, who missed him and is happy to have him back.

“[Poppy] was nearly doing backflips when she saw the cage,”Bec told The Age.

“My dog had been fretting and reverting to puppy behavior but now the cat is back he is relaxed,” Bec said. “And Rupert is a bit friendlier now.”

Bec now realizes that Poppy was on the trail and trying to find Rupert during his absence, and the dog’s behavior confirms that Rupert took the train. Bec says Poppy gravitated toward the nearby railway lines during searches for the missing cat

“All she was worried about was taking us down to the train line, so we’re fairly sure he was down there,” Bec said.

Bec credits Rupert’s microchip with bringing him home, saying: “Without the microchip, we wouldn’t have been able to get him back.”

Once home, “He walked straight for the pantry,” Bec said.