Family Cat Goes Missing, Then 4 Years Later They Spot An ‘Exact Replica’ At The Pet Store

 On Valentine’s Day, Michelle Wright was on a date with the man who would eventually become her husband, babysitting her sister’s pregnant cat. That was how they witnessed the birth of Fuzzy, a black-and-white cat they would make a part of their family: As she and her now-husband grew closer, Fuzzy was right there with them.

So, when the cat bolted away from a friend’s house in 2010, Michelle was devastated. Fuzzy had been such a huge part of her life. How could she ever replace her? Well, a visit to the pet store answered her questions in the most unexpected way.

Michelle Wright’s heart broke when her beloved cat, Fuzzy, escaped from a friend’s home. Deeply affected by the loss, she scoured her Barrington, New Hampshire, community for several weeks in July 2010 searching for her fur baby.

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Michelle kept her diligent search for Fuzzy going, until a neighbor came to her with unsettling news. The neighbor had witnessed something that seemingly made Michelle’s search mission futile.

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“One of her [the friend’s] neighbors had told me that a black and white cat that resembled him had been struck by a car, which was extremely devastating,” Michelle told WMUR-TV news.

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“I was a mess for quite a while and I had given up for the most part,” Michelle continued. She was filled with resentment for herself, as if she could’ve done something to stop these events. Picturing innocent Fuzzy deceased was too much for her to handle.

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And though this was true, there was a part of her that kept faith that Fuzzy was somewhere out there, alive. “I was devastated. But I would always keep my eye out for him when I was in the area,” Michelle relayed.

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Four years later, still no sign of Fuzzy, Michelle and her husband stopped into Barrington’s Pet Connection pet supplies store. It was there that she was finally met with a sign.

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And when we say “sign,” we literally mean what Michelle sensed was Fuzzy’s face. See, the Cocheco Valley Humane Society had a section in the store with animals up for adoption, one being a familiar-looking black-and-white kitty. His name was Molson.

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Michelle asked for Molson’s story. Pet Connection had been fostering him in support of the Dover, New Hampshire, shelter for just about a week — a far cry from the four years Fuzzy was missing. But really, he had quite the story.

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See, though Pet Connection was taking care of this Fuzzy lookalike right before Michelle found her way back to him, the poor feline had apparently been bouncing back and forth between families and the shelter for quite a while.

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The Cocheco Valley Humane Society had re-homed Molson two separate times. The first time he was adopted by a woman, but that living situation only lasted seven months. Who would dare get rid of that mushy little face?

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The second time a family adopted the cat, later returning him when they moved away from the area. But this was an interesting development “His named was changed to Molson by his last owner,” Michelle said. She needed to know more about this cat.

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“I had said to my husband, ‘Wow, he looks an awful lot like Fuzzy.’ And I asked how old he was and she said according to the shelter he was 4 years old. And at that very moment, I knew,” Michelle explained.

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Michelle was filled with emotions; she was going to prove this cat was her Fuzzy. “She was really adamant about it like, ‘That’s my cat, I swear. That looks just like my cat, I’m going to have to bring in pictures,’” recalled Jesse Senter, the owner of Pet Connection.

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“And then the next day she brought in pictures and lo and behold, they matched up everything to the paw prints and colors and markings and everything,” he continued. It was a perfect match.

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When Michelle saw the memorable black spot on the bottom of his paw, she couldn’t help but get teary-eyed. “I just started bawling. I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but I don’t care,” Michelle exclaimed.

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Michelle was more than happy to shell out the $85 adoption fee to reclaim her cherished kitty, who she’d been gravely missing for four years. The fee also covered the implanting of a microchip, so Fuzzy’s identity would never again be a mystery.

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And not only was their unlikely reunion one filled with love, but the story behind Michelle’s initial encounter with Fuzzy as a kitten, too, was one for the books. “He was a Valentine’s Day cat,” she said.

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As Fuzzy propped himself up on Michelle, his tiny paws resting on her knees, she felt the strong connection to Fuzzy she felt on Valentine’s Day 2009. Fuzzy was finally home. “If I never believed in miracles before, I do now,” she said.

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Whether or not you believe in miracles, you have to admit that Michelle Wright’s and Fuzzy’s reunion is marvelous. Perhaps you’d rather call it a stroke of luck. Whatever you wish to call it, it happens more than you’d think. From America’s New Hampshire to South East England’s Hampshire, people and pets are reuniting.

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Jo and Ade Haigh, from Stubbington, Hampshire, got Charlie when he was just seven weeks old. He was the sweetest little black and white kitten with glowing green eyes, and the English couple was happy to welcome him to his forever home.

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Charlie lived a happy life with his new parents in the suburban village of Stubbington, which he loved adventuring through. They trusted Charlie enough to let him walk around the south coast of England, confident he’d always make it home safely.

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This went on for nine years. So imagine the Haighs’ shock when, one day in 2006, Charlie never came back home to his family. They did their best to avoid panicking, as that wouldn’t solve anything; instead, they made it their mission to find their fur baby.

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The anguished couple put up “Lost Cat” posters around the neighborhood and desperately contacted local veterinarian offices and animal shelters in hopes that someone brought Charlie in. Alas, this was all to no avail.

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Sadly, life had to go on; Jo and Ade couldn’t grieve forever. The couple wound up packing up and moving to a neighborhood over two miles from the house that they once owned and raised Charlie in.

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The couple hadn’t visited their previous charming village in quite a while, but Jo stopped by the town they once called home when her mother was looking to purchase a property in that region in 2012. Anything for mum!

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“My mum, sister and I were looking at a place close to the house Ade and I lived in when Charlie went missing.” said Jo. Being back in their old stomping grounds brought back memories of Charlie.

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“If it wasn’t for the bungalow my mum, sister and I were looking at, we wouldn’t have been around there,” she continued. Perhaps there was more than one reason Jo was brought back to the area.

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It originally seemed like just and uneventful trip back to her old neighborhood, when suddenly, Jo spotted an oddly familiar-looking black-and-white cat outside a house. It looked like a replica of Charlie.

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“When we saw this cat on a wall outside a house I was immediately 99.9 per cent sure it was Charlie,” Jo recalled. But since she hadn’t seen her precious fur ball in about six years, it would be a miracle if it were really him.

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“He was a lot skinnier but came straight over to me and responded to his name,” Jo explained. But of course, the cat could’ve just been responding to sound. She needed to know for sure.

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Jo had a strong gut feeling that this random cat in her former neighborhood was in fact her missing pet, so she did what any crazy cat lady would do: she took him.

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Jo immediately booked it to the animal shelter she worked at as a receptionist to check the wandering mystery cat for a microchip, as her and her engineer husband had one implanted in Charlie. The microchip test would reveal the truth.

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Unbelievably, the microchip test revealed that this enigma of a cat truly was Charlie, who was 16 years old as of 2012. “I’m over the moon to have him back. We shed a few tears when the microchip test worked,” Jo gushed. It was fate.

Jo went and spoke to the man who lived in the house she found Charlie in front of, where she learned that he’d been feeding Charlie for nearly two and a half years! If only Charlie could talk to tell the tales of his six-year journey.

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“Charlie had always been quite a friendly cat. When we lived in Stubbington he would often go down to the nearby stables where they would feed him. So it’s no surprise he found someone to look after him in the intervening years,” Jo explained.

Better Cities for Pets

Jo and Ade were beyond grateful to have their four-legged friend back in their home. But things were much different in the Haigh household since Charlie had last lived with them, as the family now had two other cats, two dogs, and beautiful twin babies, Drew and Daniella.

Though he was always a mischievous, fun-loving outdoor kitty, Jo and Ade were understandably wary of the idea of letting him outside again. Regarding the idea, Jo then stated, “We will eventually, but I don’t know when I’ll be brave enough.”

“He’s got the meow of an older cat now and you can tell he’s grown up into an older boy. He’s settling back in and doesn’t seem too fazed by the children,” Jo relayed of Charlie’s progress. The Haighs had always wondered what happened to Charlie after he disappeared, but that no longer mattered; Charlie was finally home.

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Though the story of Jo and Ade’s runaway cat is miraculous, cats are survivors, and this kind of thing happens more than you’d think. Though not all pet owners get microchips implanted in their cats, there are other ways of confirming that a lost cat is your lost cat.

Photo: Jaimy Jones / HCN Staff

Jon Gulla was craving both responsibility and love one day in 2012, so he followed in the footsteps of so many young adults before him and went searching for the perfect pet.

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When he saw two cats — Julie and her brother, Jack — Jon knew he’d found the perfect pair. He brought the two home and let ’em run hog wild around his place. The kittens cuddled together. They played together. They were a delight.

This made it particularly painful when, shortly after the adoption, Jon had to leave Julie and Jack with his mother. He was off to college and wasn’t into the idea of hiding cats in his dorm room.

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Jon’s mother, Lorinda, welcomed the kittens into her abode because, c’mon, who wouldn’t? Julie had a little white spot on her fur that made her just so darn cute. But her joy in living with the two kittens was unexpectedly cut short.

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Being that she was a cat and prone to bizarre fits of panic, Julie took off running one day. Just scooted out the door and headed down the street. “I couldn’t find her,” Lorinda recalled. “I was just beside myself.”

Devastated by the breakup of his dynamic kitten duo, Jon teamed up with his mom to find the missing feline. They wandered the neighborhood, hanging up posters, jingling bags of cat treats, and calling Julie!

Frantic searches for the cat halted, however, when doctors diagnosed Jon with lymphoma. With a fight for his life now ahead of him, he could no longer focus on the cat he so dearly loved.

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Six years passed. Jon beat cancer, married his long-time girlfriend, found a new job, and set-up shop in Indianapolis, 25 miles away from his old home in Carmel. Things were looking up. But he never stopped thinking about Julie.

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Perhaps it was for that reason his mother was browsing PawBoost Lost & Found Pets, a page on Facebook dedicated to reuniting pet owners with, well, their lost pets. A certain post on it piqued her interest.

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A woman named Christine McKeon wrote that she’d recently seen a cat under a shed in her backyard. The cat, she noted, was skittish, and just a little bit mean. It didn’t sound anything like Julie.

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Most concerning of all was that the post didn’t mention the white spot on Julie’s belly, which would’ve been a good detail to include, Lorinda thought, were someone trying to find this cat’s owner.

Still, even after six years, she, like Jon, was drawn to the idea that Julie was definitely still out there, looking for them. She knew they’d be kicking themselves for the rest of their lives if they didn’t follow up with Christine.

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So Jon made the drive, white-knuckle clenching the steering wheel in anticipation. In less than half-an-hour, he arrived at Christine’s house and stood before the shed a mean, stray, black cat called home.

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With every ounce of love he could muster, just as he and his mother had done six years before in the streets of suburbia, Jon called Julie’s name. And nothing happened.

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But understanding that cats are cats and don’t really come when you call them, Jon gave it another go. Julieeeee, he called. Julieeee. Then, two glowing eyes peaked out at Jon from the darkness beneath the shed.

Jon in her sights, the cat once called mean and skittish emerged. “She came out running from under the shed,” Christine recalled, “like ‘Oh hey, I know this guy.” Soon, she was face-to-face with Jon.

And then she started purring like a lawnmower engine! She rubbed against Jon’s legs, and, after he bent down to pick her up, she crawled right up on to his shoulders! Still, Jon needed to be convinced this was his Julie.

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“I turned her around…and I said ‘does she have a white spot?'” Jon explained. The folks gathered around confirmed: “She has a white spot on her stomach!” Jon couldn’t believe it. After six years, he finally found his cat!

In that moment of reunion, Jon pet Julie and noticed her fur was surprisingly well-kept. To him, it meant that she only recently moved in under the shed. Someone had been taking care of her over the years.

Delighted to have his cat back, Jon looked forward to another reunion — Julie and Jack’s. Would the siblings even remember the short time they spent together? Would they get along?

All of Jon’s anxieties melted away, however, when he put Julie down beside Jack for the first time. The two went right back to their old tricks, running around and playing together. Jon was overwhelmed.

“It’s almost like seeing a ghost or something,” he said of seeing Julie in his home. Still, this was one ghost Jon was happy to have haunt his house!

Jon couldn’t help but be thankful to whoever cared for Julie over those six years. There wasn’t a chance in the world she would’ve made it on her own over that time. Oddly, though, some animals do prove surprisingly self-sufficient on their own.

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