The curious case of the missing Lanarkshire cats

Tracy McCulloch's cat, Pepe, went missing for 16 days

When Tracy McCulloch's cat, Pepe, went missing from his East Kilbride home, she was puzzled to find him miles away in Motherwell.

After discovering that other cats from the area had also been found there and close by, she was convinced something suspicious was going on.

The missing cats were found up to 10 miles away, in and around areas such as Newarthill, Holytown and Motherwell.

With at least nine cats disappearing from East Kilbride, her daughter Sam set up a Facebook page to help solve the mystery.

Pepe's disappearance was out of character.

Tracy went to the vet with her other cat but when there was still no sign of Pepe on her return she grew worried.

Speaking to the BBC Radio's Mornings programme, she said: "We started looking round the area, shaking biscuits, checking sheds, garages and still nothing. So we started looking through social media."

Pepe was found in Motherwell after 16 days and Tracy's daughter, Sam, said he was "nervous for a while but just really underweight".

Pepe was underweight when he returned home

After setting up the Facebook page, Sam felt the situation could not be a coincidence.

Since then, even more cats have been reported missing.

"We have spoken to a lot of the owners individually and to be honest, I mean you can’t really accuse anybody," she said.

"There isn’t any evidence other than they all went missing from the same area and have all been found within the same area. None of them have had any injuries apart from being absolutely starving."

She says some people have contacted the police regarding their missing cat, but because there is no evidence of people picking up the cats, there is nothing that can be done.

Roger Tabor is an expert on cats

Roger Tabor is a naturalist, an expert on cats and former BBC Animal Magic presenter from Essex.

Speaking to the programme he said it would be almost "impossible" for a group of cats to all appear in the same area, having crossed the River Clyde.

"With Tracy's case, it’s particularly very unambiguous because her cat was blind in one eye I understand."

He added that the cats wouldn't all be going in the same direction on their own.

"These things, if they’re real, it points to somebody living in the place where they’re ending up and working in East Kilbride and going backwards and forwards.

"You get the odd one who will roam but, realistically, this is not the standard by any means, so yeah I think somebody’s up to no good.

"If I lived in East Kilbride I would make damn sure I had my cat chipped," he said.