Cat who cost owner golf break found in grounds of cattery

A CAT whose bid for freedom cost her owner an £800 luxury holiday has been found – just yards away from where vanished.

Missing in action Mia fled her carry cage on the morning that owner Agnes Campbell was due to leave for a golfing break in Majorca.

The pensioner was so desperate to find her cat that she sent husband Robert, 69, off to the Calabona resort while she scoured the south side of the city with son Gary to find Mia.

But little did they know that the rescue cat was wandering the grounds of the Colinton Country Cattery the entire time, after escaping into the car park before she was checked in.

After false sightings across the Capital, Agnes eventually hatched a plan to trap the elusive black and white cat, who is now back home in Penicuik.

The 66-year-old former Edinburgh Crystal worker said: "We think that Mia was still in the grounds the whole time, but we had heard a number of people say they had seen her in their gardens. I said, 'I think we're going to have to go to some serious measures to get her back', so we hired a big cage from Lothian Cat Rescue and the cattery owner set the trap in the grounds.

"We placed some of the special food that Mia eats in the cage, and then we camouflaged it with a blanket.

"It only took a few hours and there she was – she must have been really hungry.

"Altogether she was away nine days, but it seemed like a lot longer. We've missed her so much."

Helen Smith, who runs the cattery, said: "We knew Mia was somewhere because we kept seeing her around the grounds, and she had been eating the food we had been leaving for her.

"She was a very shy cat indeed so my husband hired a cage to catch her and it only took about three hours.

"We're very happy to see Agnes and Mia reunited."

Agnes added that apart from losing a bit of weight, Mia is safe and well after her mini-break.

She said: "She's very thin now, but she was quite a fat cat in the first place so I think she'll be OK. I'm really grateful to the readers of the Evening News and the residents of Colinton, as well as the cattery for helping me get her back."

Agnes added: "I'm not going to be letting her out of my sight from now on."