Missy the cat was travelling by car with her owner Paul Leeves and doggy sibling Pepper, as part of a family move from Melbourne to Brisbane in late April this year. 

Missy escaped from the car near the Yass Service Centre and despite Paul’s efforts to find her, she couldn’t be found. 

His wife Pamela Leeves left the family's contact details with staff at the centre but their hopes of finding the cat again dwindled after a few weeks.

Missy was found, thin and dehydrated, at the centre on May 27.

She had a serious injury to her right eye, which had to be removed. Two of her teeth also had to be pulled out.

Her family's contact details had gone missing, so Yass Council ranger Sarah Barnes took  Missy into care and nicknamed her "Hope".

Someone had remembered the contact notice from the owners but this had evidently been lost so the Yass Council ranger, Sarah Barnes, took her into care. Missy was not microchipped and so there was no easy way to reunite her with her owners; her injuries suggested she could have been hit by a car.

Ms Barnes used the Yass Animal Shelter Facebook page to start an appeal to find Missy's owners and raised enough money to fund her treatment at Yass Valley Veterinary Hospital.

The story was also shared on the Facebook page of radio station 3AW Melbourne, owned by Fairfax Media, and was shared more than half a million times.

Missy was taken in by an ACT Rescue and Foster carer, who looked after her as she had her stitches out and began to eat again and put on weight.

In early July, Mrs Leeves stumbled upon the 3AW Melbourne story as she trawled the internet and got in touch with Ms Barnes.

Missy was microchipped and reunited with the Leeves family at their new home in Margate, Queensland, on July 12.