one thing she did say was that she wasnt 100% sure he had passed
I shall restrict myself to saying that this seems to me to be a somewhat fundamental detail.
My vet has a patient who went missing for eighteen months, as I said, from his home in (I think it was) Dorset. His human moved to Fulham in the meantime and had completely given up hope of ever seeing the cat again.
One day, the chap received a phone call from his former next-door neighbour, who said: 'You're not going to believe this, but Tigger has just strolled into my garden and is sitting in the middle of the lawn.'
The two were reunited that same day and Tigger now lives happily in Fulham, just round the corner from me.