A curious cat which went missing during a 2,000 mile journey has been reunited with its rescuer after an international search on social media.
Oopa - a feral cat from the Greek island of Zante - was on the way to its new home in Macclesfield, Cheshire, after befriending Hannah Wilkinson while she was on holiday.
But after travelling through Italy, France, Luxemburg, Belgium and back into France, Oopa - who was being transferred by an animal rescue charity - went missing when he reached the English Channel.
Hannah, 32, of The Whitfields, Macclesfield, had arranged to adopt Oopa through a Greek animal rescue centre which gave him his passport and vaccinations, and agreed to transport him alongside other rescue cats to England.
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But a distraught Hannah, who was waiting for his arrival in Macclesfield, launched a frenzied social media appeal after learning that he had gone missing from the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais, France.
She put out pictures on Twitter and Facebook and contacted animal rescue centres at home and abroad, the Manchester Evening News reports.
And, after not sleeping and trawling posts for two days, she finally found the clue she was looking for - hungry Oopa had been spotted stealing food from a burger chain in Calais.
Hannah said: “I spotted a message on a pet alert site from a French woman whose friend posted a picture of a cat which stole his burger in McDonalds. I couldn’t believe it - it was Oopa.”
Eurotunnel staff jumped to action and were stunned to find Oopa sitting in the car park of the Calais restaurant. And with the help of volunteer Fay Franklin, who lives in Kent and offered to retrieve Oopa from France, Hannah and Oopa were reunited.
Hannah, a hospital operating department practitioner who lives with parents Jenny and John, was on holiday with her mum in Zante when homeless Oopa jumped on her lap during a storm.
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She fed him every day and named him after the Greek exclamation word ‘Oopa’. She said: “I had to adopt Oopa, he would have starved in Greece.
“If it wasn’t for social media, there’s no way we would have found Oopa. So many amazing people helped get him back.
“Oopa is the word Greeks shout during celebrations, it’s like saying ‘oh wow’, so it’s even more fitting now. Hundreds of people celebrated when Oopa was found, it’s a miracle.
“He’s definitely lost all his nine lives.”
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