Elusive cat found one year after second escape

An elusive cat who escaped his foster home within 24 hours of arriving has been found one year later.

It was the second time that Stan's stealthy skills had seen him evade members of the community who had been trying to catch him.

Volunteers at Eden Animal Rescue in Newbiggin, Cumbria, eventually found the white long-haired tabby on Monday after he strayed into a family home.

Volunteer Sue Emmerson said: "We were in their kitchen and when we realised it was Stan we burst into tears."

The rescue centre found Stan his foster home in June 2025 but he clearly had other plans and found a way to escape.

The hungry kitty was sighted by a local in the village of Melmorby, hanging out near a bakery after volunteers had put out posters searching for him.

Volunteer Elaine Brown said: "We set off to investigate, took a trap out with us, sat in a car park watching this trap for two to three hours."

After trying to lure Stan with "some nice smelly mackerel or sardines and tomato sauce" the volunteers had no luck catching the "gorgeous" moggy who kept giving them the slip.

Brown said they "set up a trail camera" for a couple of days but Stan was always one paw ahead and avoided detection.

The sleuth team even got a call mistaking a "lookalike" cat in Carlisle for Stan.

"Everyone was excited, but unfortunately it wasn't him," she said.

After months of searching, the team received a call on Monday from a family about 13 miles (21km) away in Renwick.

"I got my scanner out and scanned him [his microchip]," Brown said.

Emmerson said: "We were in their kitchen and when we realised it was Stan we burst into tears.

"The people in the village were a bit fed up because he was going through the bins because he was so hungry.

"When we got there, he was actually asleep on one of the beds upstairs."

After tempting him down with some tuna, "which he scoffed, and then disappeared back upstairs" they followed him to find he was "walking along the landing, just like he owned the place".

Emmerson picked up the "friendly" feline who was as "light as a feather".

"He needed quite a bit of building up," she said.

The "laid-back" cat is being nursed back to full health at the rescue centre and the pair said the family who found him would like to adopt him.

Stan had originally been taken to the rescue centre as a stray when he regularly visited Nicola Hocking's house in Carlisle, after previously going missing.

The cat owner said: "He was there just eating, turned up every night."

After discovering that he had no microchip at the time, she said she was "heartbroken" when she could not keep him, as her own pet, six-year-old Alfie Cracklepots, took a dislike to the "loving cat".

For now, Stan is "relaxing" at the centre... but who knows if he is planning his next great escape.

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