McCaig Tower’s missing cat Misha is back home after 20 months after turning up in Aberdeen.
Misha, who was well-known for keeping Oban residents and visitors entertained at the town’s lofty landmark, vanished leaving his owners Fiona and Tam Ferris fearing the worst – until they got a surprise phone call saying he was alive and well 200 miles away.
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The popular puss was with his new owner Gregoria Kaouni Papazacharia about to be microchipped for a holiday in Greece when the vet discovered he already had a chip.
Fiona and Tam were told that a couple from Aberdeen thought Misha was a stray after watching him at the tower. They took him home with them – asking Gregoria to take him in full-time just a few months later.
Misha has been well looked after while away, enjoying the highlife with Gregoria, even going on holidays – including a NC500 roadtrip.
Bringing Misha back to Oban was a big decision, reuniting him with his brothers Parsley and Purdy said Fiona.
“It’s going very well, much better than we thought it might. It’s notoriously difficult integrating an adult cat with other adult cats but they are tolerating each other,” she added.
Inside, Misha is still being kept to a room of his own but he has been venturing out and about.
Fitted with a tracker and a collar, he is familiarising himself with his old surroundings – and is back at McCaig’s Tower. “He’s dedicated to it,” said Fiona.
“It’s as if he has a job at the tower. He lived with us before he went missing but spent most of his time up there entertaining the tourists. He certainly wasn’t a stray. He was so well-known because he was so friendly.
“When he first went missing, I even asked the council if they had been spraying weedkiller. They said ‘no’ but that was the kind of thing we were thinking. We gradually had to accept he was gone and feared he was probably dead.
“We never dreamed we’d get him back where he belongs. He’s much more domesticated now but as full of life and character as ever,” added Fiona.