A cat has been reunited with its owner 10 years after going missing.

Lynx disappeared from her home in Hook, Hampshire, in 1997, and her owner, Patricia Charnet, thought she would never see her pet again.

Earlier this week a stray was found in Carterton, Oxfordshire, and handed in to the Blue Cross centre in Burford.

A scan showed that the 12-year-old tabby was microchipped and the centre tracked down her owner, who lived 60 miles away.

Read more here.

wow..that's an amazing story!! :o

that is amazing. and i'm sure it really would have a story to tell if it could. i didn't know they did microchipping ten years ago. don't they have microchips now that can track down your animal anywhere in the world.

WOW!!!!



Cat

Man, that's an amazing story! :o

What was the cat doing for 10 years?  ???

It sounds amazing.

What was the cat doing for 10 years?  ???
Living the life of a cat?

What was the cat doing for 10 years?  ???


Some cats, especially male cats that have not been fixed, tend to wonder away once they reach maturity.  In search for whatever male cats search for.  I had a male cat years ago that disappeared for years and I was sure he was dead.  But one day I found him resting in the garage.  I could see he had quite a few battle scars.  He finally settled down but months later he eventually passed on.  Kinda sad really.

Some cats, especially male cats that have not been fixed, tend to wonder away once they reach maturity.  In search for whatever male cats search for.  I had a male cat years ago that disappeared for years and I was sure he was dead.  But one day I found him resting in the garage.  I could see he had quite a few battle scars.  He finally settled down but months later he eventually passed on.  Kinda sad really.


Awwwww, I'm sorry to hear that! I'm glad you got to see him again, though.  :\'(

According to our local news the cat was in great shape,well cared for and had obviously been living with another family all that time.

The cat story I read in the paper yesterday was so sweet. Apparently one cat Hamish was hit by a car and seen limping off into some woodland. His owners searched all over and couldn't find him. The next day they let out his brother Guiness and later heard meowing. There was Guiness with Hamish who he had dragged/carried home. They took Hamish to the vet and he had a fractured pelvis and is now recovering well at home! 

I wonder if the cat had to get used to the current cat at the home, because the owner would surely have replaced it with another cat.

What was the cat doing for 10 years?  ???
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0Je5mh49YlGnmwAnVCjzbkF/SIG=1268pfpqv/EXP=1183532792/**http%3A//off.net/diary/images/2003/02/img_0892_s.jpg

Awwwww, I'm sorry to hear that! I'm glad you got to see him again, though.  :\'(


Thanks.  It was nice to see him again. 

Some cats, especially male cats that have not been fixed, tend to wonder away once they reach maturity.  In search for whatever male cats search for.  I had a male cat years ago that disappeared for years and I was sure he was dead.  But one day I found him resting in the garage.  I could see he had quite a few battle scars.  He finally settled down but months later he eventually passed on.  Kinda sad really.



When I was a kid, we had a cat (male) who would always go off gallivanting and we wouldn't see him for days/weeks. He would always show up at meal time-and be off again. After a while, he never returned. We had no idea what happened to him.



Cat

There was a wonderful programme on the secret life of a tom cat, it may had been done by Sir David Attenborough. The tom cat would walk from farm to farm in a large circle visiting the female cats, then going off to the next one.

http://www.mr-lee-catcam.de/index.htm
Tomcat 'Mr. Lee' Takes Snapshots of His World

By Konrad Lischka

What do cats get up to all day? Jürgen Perthold was determined to find out and built a special cat camera which he attached to the collar of his tomcat Mr. Lee. It takes one photo a minute. The results give an interesting cat's-eye view of life.

Mr. Lee has the hots for the cat next door. She's sitting on top of the brick wall and staring at her two suitors, a skinny black tom and Mr. Lee, a chubby half tabby with a white chest and face.

Mr. Lee has a little camera attached under his neck. It was built by his owner Jürgen Perthold, a German engineer who lives in America and has just invented the first kitty-cam.

Mr. Lee only has himself to blame for Perthold's curiosity. The cat seems to lead an eventful life. Sometimes he stays out all day and comes home hungry with fresh battle scars. Some nights he doesn't come home at all.

"I wanted to find out what he gets up to, where he spends his days," said Perthold, who lives with his family in Anderson, South Carolina. "The cat has a lot of space to run around and there are some pretty remote areas here," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Perthold is selling his invention for $30 in the US. It consists of a keyring camera called VistaQuest VQ1005 which weighs only 35 grams. He converted the camera to give it more battery power so that it can take one photo every minute for 48 hours.

Including the battery, the kitty-cam weighs 70 grams. "Mr. Lee is a pretty big cat so it doesn't give him any problems," said Perthold. "He objects a bit when I attach the camera, but after that he accepts it." That may have something to do with the fact that Mr. Lee can't get at it with his paws.

After trying out a number of different casings, he found that a cover of polypropylene, a type of plastic, worked best. Perthold wrote his own software to control the camera. He finally got the design right in April. "I couldn't wait to get the collar off and open the housing," he said.

Perthold was delighted with the results. What did Mr. Lee photograph on his travels? Pretty much what you'd expect, really -- pictures of other cats, a longing look up at a birdhouse, and the underside of parked cars where he meets his friends.

Details of Perthold's invention can be seen on his Web site mr-lee-catcam.de .

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,487047,00.html

When I was a kid, we had a cat (male) who would always go off gallivanting and we wouldn't see him for days/weeks. He would always show up at meal time-and be off again. After a while, he never returned. We had no idea what happened to him.



Cat
he may have started eating at other people's huses and someone decided to catch him so he won't be out at night eating birds and fighting.

he may have started eating at other people's huses and someone decided to catch him so he won't be out at night eating birds and fighting.



I have no doubt that he was being fed by another family (probably many) but I doubt he would be one to be indoors without putting a fight. When he did return home, you could tell that he was out and about because he was dirty, mangy and had his battle sores. We think that he probably got hit by a car somewhere along his travels or maybe he lost a fight.


Cat

My parents have a tomcat named Hobbes. (Dad named it after the cartoon cat not the theologian )  anyway at 14 years old Hobbes took off for a few days.  We thought he was dead and the nasty neighbors were threatening to have their dog eat him.  five days later he comes home . . . go figure.  Good old Hobbes!!!

I thought cats had 9 lives?  ???

That's amazing. :) I wonder if it had any trouble recognizing its owner. I always wondered if, say, someone aged noticeably or changed their haircolor, if animals would still know who they were. Especially since it's been that long.

P.S. Hard to believe a kitten of 1997 is now almost an "old cat".

^Also, I'd think it would be more noticeable if, say a kid grew up during the time a cat was gone. Like, if an 8-year old was now 18, would they have any idea who the person once was (I guess scents and some things stay the same, though, so they might know)? It would be less of a big deal for an adult.

Yeah I think it would go more by scent and everything.  But 10 years is a long time for a cat, it's hard to say.

That's an amazing story, Phil!  :o


The cat story I read in the paper yesterday was so sweet. Apparently one cat Hamish was hit by a car and seen limping off into some woodland. His owners searched all over and couldn't find him. The next day they let out his brother Guiness and later heard meowing. There was Guiness with Hamish who he had dragged/carried home. They took Hamish to the vet and he had a fractured pelvis and is now recovering well at home! 


Awwww...I love stories like that which have a happy ending!  :)

I have no doubt that he was being fed by another family (probably many) but I doubt he would be one to be indoors without putting a fight. When he did return home, you could tell that he was out and about because he was dirty, mangy and had his battle sores. We think that he probably got hit by a car somewhere along his travels or maybe he lost a fight.


Cat
Sometimes they get trapped in peoiple's garages.They do like to catch rats and bugs.

If a cat can return after 10 years I suppose there is still hope for our Tasha, who went missing a few months ago.

If a cat can return after 10 years I suppose there is still hope for our Tasha, who went missing a few months ago.
depends on how old she is.

depends on how old she is.
The cat has to be at least 10 years old.

The cat has to be at least 10 years old.
I meant tasha.