Lanarkshire mystery as multiple missing cats vanish then reappear 10 miles away

A Scottish town has been labelled the "purr-muda triangle" after a series of cats mysteriously vanished - only to reappear 10 miles away.

Pets have been disappearing from East Kilbride and resurfacing on the outskirts of Motherwell, in areas such as Newarthill, Carfin and Holytown.

To date, nine cats have disappeared in the Lanarkshire area, leading to emotional reunions - and unanswered questions, reports the Daily Record. The reason behind the multiple cases remains unknown, sparking fears about potential cat-nappers.

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A support group named Pepe's Friends, after one of the missing cats who has since returned home, has been created on Facebook.

Pepe, a 12-year-old cat with vision in only one eye, was found in Newarthill 16 days after he went missing last month. His owner, Tracy Mcculloch, 50, said: "It's 100 per cent not the cats taking themselves there. There's something going on we keep finding new cases. When Pepe went missing. It was so out of character. It was a Facebook message from a woman in Newarthill that got us Pepe back."

She added: "She'd seen him around so we went to the area and, when my daughter shook a box of biscuits, he came out and recognised us. He was a bag of bones. But we started hearing of other cats from East Kilbride who'd ended up in the same area. I think someone's lifting them. One of the owners has been to the police but they said there is nothing they can do."

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Louise Thomson, a mother of two aged 36, was overjoyed to be reunited with her family's beloved pet, Sox, two weeks after he went missing in February. She shared: "I'd lost all hope of ever seeing him again but then I got a Facebook message from someone in Carfin who'd caught him raiding her bins."

Linda Cuthbert, from the cat rescue charity Clan Mccat Scotland, added: "Cats like familiarity and have a territory they're regimented in patrolling. They don't just go for a 10-mile daunder."