This cat came back, but only after stowing away on a fishing boat

When Hank the cat disappeared from his home on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore, his owners thought he was gone for good. Instead, he was on a grand adventure.

The story of Hank's escapades began last week when he went missing from the home of Leanne and Ray Mosher in Ostrea Lake, N.S.

"It was Friday when we noticed he was out and about but hadn't come back," said Leanne Mosher.

After almost four days they figured they would never see their cat again.

But a local fisherman, and Facebook, came to Hank's rescue.

"I was about to leave to go to work, and Ray was still upstairs getting ready to go to work and he yelled down to me, 'Come upstairs, you need to see this,'" said Mosher.

It was a Facebook post from Murray Rowlings, who had discovered Hank on his fishing boat and posted a picture of the crew cuddling the furry stowaway.

Later in the day, Ray Mosher grabbed a cat carrier from their home and met Rowlings, the captain of the Miss Vonna Eve, at the wharf nearly two kilometres from the Moshers's home.

Rowlings believes Hank had climbed on board his boat prior to it heading out to fish for herring. He did not know he had a stowaway when he pulled away in the early morning darkness.

"When we had a little bit of light on the bow of the boat, that's when I saw a little set of ears in the window right in front of me," said Rowlings. "I told my first mate to go get it and it wasn't long before he had him up in his arms and he was purring and going on."

Hank, only nine months old, spent the day at sea and was treated like a king by Rowlings and his first mate, Jeff King.

"We had some sausages there and some macaroni hamburger that we broke up and fed him, and we made up a bowl of water for him," said Rowlings. "He purred all the way home and we took turns over who was going to cuddle him."

Living in the rural community of Ostrea Lake, the Moshers thought the cat may have been killed by a coyote or badly injured by some other predator.

"We live in the country and we know the coyote population," said Mosher. "We were at the point where we thought there's no way he's coming home."

Hank is now safely home once again and hopefully plotting safer adventures on land.