A delighted Scots family is to be reunited with their pet cat - seven months after it escaped from their car as they moved to France
Katie Kane and her family were left heartbroken when pet moggie Tootsie vanished as they travelled from Stirling to a new home in the south of France.
Katie, husband Sam and daughters Emilie, 18, and Chloe 15, were 250 miles into their journey to Grenoble when they stopped at a service station in Markham Moor, Nottinghamshire.
But when they opened the car door Tootsie slipped out of his cat carrier and ran off into the woods last summer.
The heartbroken family frantically searched for the pet but Tootsie was never found.
Katie said: "He was in his cat carrier but somehow managed to get the zips apart with his head and when we opened the car door he escaped.
"He had a harness on so when he jumped out we tried to grab him by the harness but the clips just came apart in our hands and he ran off into the wooded area.
"We stayed for as long as we could but he wasn't coming back and we just had to carry on with the rest of our journey."
Katie spent months issuing desperate appeals online to try and find Tootsie, never giving up hope he would be found.
Now she has spoken of her delight after beloved Tootsie was found unscathed on January 7, after seven months on the run.
Tootsie is set to be reunited with Katie and Sam, an engineer, on Monday.
Katie said: "I am ecstatic he has been found after being on the run for seven months fending for himself.
"There were no sightings of him for six months so it was a miracle he was found and he's still in good shape.
"He has a chest infection and some fluid on his lungs so he is on antibiotics for that but he's doing much better already.
"He has not lost too much weight, there must have been lots of tasty mice around where he was.
"I started a Facebook group for him with locals in the area looking for him.
"There was a sighting of him when he was caught on someone's CCTV between Christmas and New Year but then he did another disappearing act.
"Then on January 6 a lady was out walking with her dog and was trying to see if she could find Tootsie and sure enough she spotted him in someone's garden.
"They set up a trap in the garden and on January 7 I got a call from the lady to say I think we have found your cat.
"He has been staying with a lady from the local Cats Protection being spoilt rotten and we are organising to have him driven over to France on Monday.
"I can't wait to have cuddles.
"I never gave up hope of finding him."
