A tabby cat found in a warehouse in New York after an international adventure has had his origins traced back to Bermuda.

It emerged that the feline named Frankie lived in Bermuda years ago before being relocated to the Turks & Caicos Islands.

He was later adopted by owners in South Carolina, who then surrendered him to another rescue centre. The peripatetic puss was adopted again before somehow ending up in the warehouse.

A worker at the Amazon location spotted Frankie two weeks ago cowering under a truck, dirty and underweight. On Tuesday, the staff member alerted a Long Island animal rescue centre.

John Debacker, the vice-president of Long Island Cat and Kitten Solutions, took a 30-minute drive to the warehouse in Holbrook where he was able to coax the creature from under the truck, give him some food and water, and eventually cuddles.

Mr Debacker, who said the cat was one of the friendliest he had rescued, then set out to find out how Frankie ended up close to 800 miles away from Bermuda, where a microchip revealed the animal was once registered.

After posting about the discovery on social media, Frankie has attracted a following from news outlets in the United States and Bermuda.

Mr Debacker told The Royal Gazette: “The cat was meowing under one of the delivery trucks. He looked scruffy, he was dirty and a bit skinny.

“I picked him up, put him in a carrier and took him back to the rescue to scan him for a microchip.

“Eventually, we tracked him back to Bermuda, which showed his name was Frankie.

“I reached out to the Bermuda [Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals], which reached out to local vets in Bermuda and we found out the owner used to be a vet on the island.”

The charity wrote to Mr Debacker: “The cat’s name is Frankie, but unfortunately they do not have any contact information for Frankie’s owner.

“The only detail they were able to provide is that her name is Ciara O’Donell, and that she has since left the island.”

Through his inquiries, Mr Debacker found out that Ms O’Donell had left the cat to owners in the Turks & Caicos, a British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic.

In 2017, Frankie was transported to Last Chance Animal Rescue in New York, which adopted him out to an owner in South Carolina.

However, those owners surrendered Frankie back to Last Chance, which then found him another home in Holbrook, New York. How he ended up at the Amazon warehouse remained a mystery yesterday.

Having been rescued by Mr Debacker on Tuesday, Frankie was taken to Last Chance.

The cat is due a vet’s appointment to check on his health and make sure that he is fit for adoption.

Allison Tyrell, the cat co-ordinator at Last Chance, said that Frankie was eight years old when he briefly joined the centre in 2017, so is now about 16.

She said it would be too stressful to relocate him too far away so the team is looking for a forever home for Frankie in New York.

Ms Tyrell said: “Tomorrow, he is going to Shinnecock Animal Hospital in Hampton Bays in New York.

“He will get a full work up, a regular exam and blood work done to confirm he is healthy and good for adoption.

“He had a bath last night; I found some flea dirt and so I gave him medication.

“There are a few people interested in him. We have a way of going through the application process, we do references, a vet check and make sure they will go to a well-deserving home.

“He’s eating like a champ. He’s very social and fine with other cats. He is free to roam and will live with me until he is ready for adoption.

“It is a very unusual situation. It’s my first time ever having to deal with a possible international stowaway and I have been an animal co-ordinator for a few years now.

“He is famous.”

Frankie’s story was shared by news outlets in the US including Long Island News 12, www.patch.com, a New York-based website, as well as the Bermuda Broadcasting Company.

April Augustus, the executive director of the Bermuda SPCA, said: “It’s amazing to think that a tiny microchip could help reconnect his story across an ocean.

“We’re all cheering him on and hoping this incredible journey ends with Frankie finding the loving forever home he deserves.

“The Bermuda SPCA is here to support Long Island Cat and Kitten Solutions in any way we can as they help him reach that happy ending.”