Cat Goes Missing For More Than A Decade And Reunites With Owner After 11 Years Away

Apr 15, 2020 by apost team

Separated for more than a decade, Maggie Welz of Dutchess County, New York reunited with her cat, Tiger, after the a member of the county SPCA found and checked the hungry, missing cat for an identification microchip in 2019. Now Welz and her old friend are finally under the same roof again.

More than eleven years ago, Maggie and her husband John found a stray cat outside of their home in New York State. The couple adopted the cat, microchipped him and named him Tiger — a fitting name for the striped Tabby. Shortly thereafter, however, Tiger escaped and was without a home yet again.

"Unfortunately somebody opened our door and he ran away and never returned," Welz told ABC 7. "So we were heartbroken and we ended up a year later moving to another house about 10 houses from that house and we told those owners to keep an eye out for him but he never returned."

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While some pet owners might have given up on finding Tiger, Welz told ABC 7 that she never had a doubt that he would return — even if it did take more than a decade. The story of how a 14-year-old cat finally found his way home after being gone for years is remarkable. Tiger didn’t find his own way home; rather, a well-meaning SPCA staff member, Carol O’Connell, who happened to notice the stray, checked Tiger for a chip on a whim. But SPCA officials told ABC 7 that it took nearly three years for O’Connell to build enough trust with the cat in order to check whether he was microchipped.

"Each year he came to my house, he deteriorated more and more each year, and that's when I realized either somebody just abandoned him or he just was missing or lost or he was just a feral cat," O'Connell told ABC 7. "This spring he started to come around a little bit more in the mornings so I started to work harder to try to gain his trust."

Once O’Connell was able to get close enough to Tiger, she borrowed a chip scanner from the SPCA and was able to find his owner — the Welz family. And after a quick vet check up, Welz and her furry friend — now an old cat, 11 years older than when she last saw him — were reunited once again.

"I can't tell them how grateful I am to them for their persistence and their dedication and for making sure that our cat was OK," Welz told ABC 7. "I have no idea where he was for the years in between, I'm sure he could tell us many tales, but the thing is that he is now home with us and he will be with us for the remainder of his life."

What do you think about Maggie and Tiger's incredible story? Have you ever been reunited with a pet after a long period of absence? Let us know and be sure to pass this heartwarming story on to your animal-loving friends and family members.