An Edinburgh cat owner has been reunited with her beloved pet she thought she would never see again.
Sarah Vercyltte, from Leith, was left heartbroken after her cat went missing nine months ago when she moved to a new neighbourhood.
The 23-year-old launched a search mission and was blown away by her community's efforts, but weeks turned to months and Scotty was still missing.
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Assuming the worst, Sarah took the posters down and called off the search until this week a miracle happened - her pet had been living on a nearby caravan site all along.
Back in August 2021 when the feline first disappeared, the 23-year-old says she was taken aback by how many people got involved and tried to help her search.
And it turned out the cat had been staying at a local caravan park for the last nine months, being fed and showered with love and attention.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live owner Sarah explained: "We lost Scotty in August 2021, around nine months ago, when he had recently arrived in the neighbourhood and he managed to jump through a window and get access to the street. He didn’t know the area so we were really scared for him.
"We were really hoping someone would have rescued him and that nothing bad had happened to him.
"We started posting multiple posts on Facebook to make people aware of the situation, and we also put posters up in the streets in our neighbourhood, thinking he probably wouldn’t have travelled too far.
"It was amazing to see how many people reached out to me to help us find him. For months I would get multiple texts and phone calls almost every week."
She continued: "It was so heartwarming to see so many people supporting us and helping out. People were searching for him, reaching out to other people they knew had seen similar cats, offering to help me with posters.
"I still can’t believe the kindness of everyone who got involved but for months we couldn’t find him. We found several very similar grey and white cats, but it was never Scotty.
"So I started thinking that it was too late, and we were not really hopeful anymore, I took down most of my posters in the street and stopped posting on Facebook because I thought it was too late."
But this week everything changed as a stranger reached out to Sarah.
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She explained: "Then a miracle happened yesterday. I checked my phone and saw multiple notifications on different platforms, a LinkedIn message, even a text by someone who had kept my number.
"All these people were telling me to check my Facebook notifications - I wasn’t really active on Facebook anymore.
"I went and found dozens of messages by people who had seen a new post by a girl who seemed to have been taking care of a cat that looked exactly like Scotty.
"When I saw the pictures I instantly knew it was Scotty!"
"Apparently he had been hanging around their Caravan club in Edinburgh for a few months already and they had been taking care of him, but they were starting to wonder if he was lost as he was there all the time
"So I texted her and we were able to go find him and pick him up the next hour or so!"
Incredibly Scotty recognised his owner straight away when she came to collect him.
"He was sleeping in a garden behind their reception area and when I arrived close to him and called his name, he meowed and went to me for cuddles! I couldn’t believe it" she said.
