A missing pet cat who disappeared from his West Melbourne home and turned up in Traralgon, about 165 kilometres away, is believed to have hitched a lift with a train.

Rupert's owner Bec Gilchrist said she nearly ran her car off the road when she received a phone call from Latrobe City Council to say her ginger cat had been discovered in the Latrobe Valley town, about a two-hour drive from Melbourne.

It didn't take Rupert the cat long to settle back in at his West Melbourne home with his mate.

Ms Gilchrist said Rupert, usually an easily-spooked homebody, had run away from her West Melbourne backyard on February 18.

Dozens of missing posters and 200 letters to neighbours failed to find the two-year-old cat, who Ms Gilchrist hand-reared after finding him dumped in a rubbish bin as a kitten.