MAN REUNITED WITH CAT AFTER 15 YEARS
LOS ANGELES — 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 last Monday afternoon with Charles, who adopted her as a 2-month-old kitten in 2005.
“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,” he said.
Brandy was found Sunday in Palmdale, about 40 miles from where Charles lives in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles.
The computer technician, who didn’t want his last name used, said 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.
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.
Charles went on with his life. He moved to another place in the Valley and adopted two younger cats.
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.
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 6 pounds.
But she was the same calm, gentle, sweet cat he remembered, Charles said.
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.
“She doesn’t have a lot of energy. But she seems very content,” Charles said.