Runaway cat takes the train for 18-mile solo adventure

Tilly had already shown her adventurous streak with solo trips to the local pub and the vet. This time, however, the two-year-old cat from Surrey decided to really go the extra mile.

Hopping aboard a train at Weybridge, Tilly proceeded to hitch an 18-mile ride into London, arriving at Waterloo station.

Michael Hardy and Emma Hill, her owners, said their affable cat had a reputation for straying, having caught buses before as well as climbing behind the bar of his local pub.

Michael Hardy and his girlfriend adopted Tilly after her original owners could not be found

MICHAEL HARDY/SWNS

On occasion, she has also had to be sent home in an Uber by locals, leaving Hardy to pick up the tab.

But even he admitted he was shocked when he received a call from a station officer informing him that his cat had found her way into central London.

“Luckily, I was working in London that day, but I had to drive across the city to go and collect her,” he said.

“The station staff couldn’t believe it. They said, ‘we have your cat, what the hell is she doing here?’, kind of thing. But she is always at the local station [in Weybridge]. People come from everywhere now to try to find her. The locals all know her.”

Hardy said he wouldn’t be surprised if his intrepid pet had even grander ambitions.

“Waterloo is the furthest she has ever made it. If she manages to get on the other line she could end up in Brighton,” he said.

“Summer is coming up, isn’t it? She might want to go to the beach. But she always comes back at some point.”

Hardy and Hill realised their cat was missing in November, but were in disbelief when they saw their Apple AirTag — which they bought specially to keep an eye on her — revealed that Tilly was on the train to London.

“We didn’t know where she was. We looked on the Apple tag and realised she had gone to Waterloo,” he said.

“The only way she can get there is on the train. You look at the tag and you see it going from one stop to another.”

Commuters into London would have soon realised they had a non-paying passenger on their trip, which usually takes between 30 minutes and 40 minutes on the most direct line.

Tilly’s reputation for adventure has won her fans from around the world. She has her own Facebook page called “Tilly the adventure cat”, which has more than 4,700 followers.

Tilly caught in the act on one of her previous journeys — this time by bus

MICHAEL HARDY/SWNS

Hardy and Hill first met Tilly when two young girls knocked on their door with the lost cat.

“It was completely random, they thought she was our cat,” he said.

Despite their best efforts to find her original owner through door-knocking and taking her to check for a microchip, they were unsuccessful. Their local vet suggested they adopt her themselves.

The couple said they still receive between three and four calls a day from concerned locals who think that Tilly might be lost.

It used to worry them when she went missing, but now they are completely used to it.

“She starts banging on the door and meowing. We open it and off she goes and we don’t know when we will see her again,” Hardy said.

Plotting her next adventure?

MICHAEL HARDY/SWNS

It probably doesn’t help that the couple live near Weybridge station — giving Tilly plenty of opportunities for far-flung travel — but she is also often spotted at the local coffee shop and pub, the Hand & Spear.

While dogs might have a reputation for adventure, Tilly is not the first cat to wander far from home.

In 2015, a 13-year-old cat called Charlie was found disembarking at a train station in Accrington, Lancashire, after a trip from Colne, 13.5 miles away. When station staff took her to the vet, a microchip in her ear identified her before she was reunited with her clearly relieved owners.

After all the media attention on Monday, Tilly was apparently getting itchy paws once more and was spotted loitering at the local taxi rank.