One New England family will have much merrier holiday season this year thanks to an unforeseen reunion with their pet cat which went missing during a trip to Cape Cod several months ago.
Rosebud, the 10-year-old feline in question, was a strictly indoor cat, according to the Animal Rescue League of Boston (ARL), who facilitated and shared the news of the reunion.
The family from Maine, whose identity was not named by ARL, had been staying in Brewster when Rosebud snuck out of the house and went missing.
“Despite drastic efforts to find her, the family had to return to Maine, devastated in the thought that their beloved cat was gone and began mourning her loss,” ARL said of the situation.
Then, months later on Dec. 14 a resident in the neighboring town of Dennis reached out to ARL’s Brewster Animal Care and Adoption Center to inform the organization that they had seen a cat hanging around their property for a couple of months seeking food.
The resident saw that the cat, later identified as Rosebud, had no collar, but they believed she was owned by someone and brought her in to ARL’s Cape Cod location.
Thanks to a microchip within Rosebud, ARL staff were able to identify her and contacted her family in Maine.
“Needless to say, the family was stunned, but overwhelmed with excitement that Rosebud was still alive,” ARL said, adding that the very next day the family made the 3-hour-long drive to bring her home.
ARL said the family remained in disbelief until they saw Rosebud again in person this past week, saying that the reality set in that she would be home with them for the holidays.
“Despite being indoors all of her life, Rosebud tapped into her survival instincts, and wandered the Cape wilderness for miles, starting in Brewster, and winding up in Dennis where she was found,” ARL added.
The organization said the incident serves as a reminder that microchipping one’s pets “greatly increases the odds of being reunited with your pets should they go missing.”
The microchip itself is about the size of a grain of rice and is programmed with an identification number unique to each animal, according to ARL, noting that the microchips are non-toxic, non-allergenic, and that they last the lifetime of a pet with no maintenance required.
