EDMONTON, CANADA – t’s a purr-fect story of love, loss, reunion and sweet cat clichés.
This cat was reunited with its original owner after 10 years apart.
A long-lost orange tabby cat has finally come to his Edmonton-area owner – 10 years after he went missing, though from the looks of him, he probably lost a few of his nine lives along the way.
Gerald Thompson was reunited with his childhood pet, Lil Homey, at a Calgary veterinary clinic on Monday afternoon.
Lil Homey had been picked up as a stray in Red Deer, and was in “rough shape” when he was taken to the McKnight Emergency Veterinary Hospital in Calgary, Thompson said. Lil Homey’s fur was extremely matted, and it took hours for the vet to shave off all the problem spots on the cat’s body.
Ten years ago, Lil Homey was living with Thompson’s grandmother when the family decided to get the cat a new home.
“My sister helped me find a home for him, and that was a farm,” Thompson told CTV Edmonton on Wednesday afternoon. “I thought that he was just out there living, and that everything was great.”
But when Thompson received a call from the vet, he says he was completely confused to hear that they’d found his cat. He already owns four, and he knew they were at his house.
“I stopped and had to think about it,” he said. But when the vet said the animal was about 15 years old, Thompson put it all together. “Then I realized, ‘You mean Lil Homey?’”
The McKnight Veterinary Hospital had identified Thompson as the original owner, using an I.D. tattoo that was on Lil Homey.
Thompson doesn’t know how his cat became a stray, or what happened in the 10 years since he was separated from it.
“I would love to know where he’s gone, because it sure looks like he’s got a few stories to tell,” Thompson said.
Cats are little miracles, indeed.
