Cat that vanished 15 years ago is reunited with owner
A cat that went astray about 15 years ago has been reunited, older and maybe wiser, with its owner.
Brandy, a brown tabby, was reunited Monday afternoon with Charles, who adopted her as a two-month-old kitten in 2005.
“It’s amazing. I think it’s unbelievable,” he said Thursday.
“I saw her, I picked her up and she started to purr and it was very emotional,” Charles said. “It was nice to have her in my arms again.”
“I did break down and cry because I thought about all of the years I lost from her,” said Charles.
Brandy was found Sunday in Palmdale, about 65 kilometres from where Charles lives in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles.
He said that Brandy strayed only a few months after he adopted her. “She went outside in the afternoon to our backyard,” he said. But when it got dark and he went to bring her inside, she wasn’t there.
Charles drove around looking for her, checked animal shelters and put up signs without any luck. “I was very sad,” he said.
He feared she had been killed by a car or a coyote.
“But I was hoping someone would take her off the streets to take care of her, and I guess that’s what happened,” he said.
Then on Sunday, he received a call from the Los Angeles County animal shelter in Palmdale and another from the company that made a microchip implanted in Brandy when she was adopted.
Charles had changed his address and home phone. But luckily, his cellphone number was the same as that listed on the microchip. On Monday afternoon, he went to Palmdale to look at Brandy. She was older and very skinny, he said.
Brandy needed a little help: She was malnourished and weighed only 2.7 kilograms.
Charles decided he couldn’t keep Brandy in his one-bedroom apartment with two younger cats. But Brandy is staying with his sister nearby, and he intends to visit often.