It’s not out of the ordinary for cats to go missing and spend months, weeks, or even years away before turning up at home or in the local area and surprising their families – we reported on one just last week that turned up in a different country.
That said, you probably wouldn’t expect your cat to appear again after 16 years – longer than some cats live altogether. However, Carl Pullen was reunited with his cat, Sunshine, this year after she went missing back in 2009.
She left his house in the town of Welwyn Garden City, England, never returning, until Pullen received a call from a vet last month to let him know that the pedigree Bengal cat was at their practice.
"It was completely out of the blue," he said, via BBC. "The vet asked if I had a cat called Sunshine, I said yes I did and they said she'd been handed in as a stray.
"I was so surprised, I was overwhelmed really as I just didn't expect to see her again, especially after all this time."
When Sunshine first went missing, Pullen put flyers up around the town and made the effort to find her, but eventually had to give up and he moved away without his feline.
“We figured by then we wouldn't see her again, but it was still sad to leave the house," explained the cat dad, who now lives in the village of Takeley, around 25 miles away,
It was thought that she may have been stolen, as Bengal cats can be sold for more than £1,000 (about $1,275) in the UK.
"She went out one day and never came back,” Pullen added. “It's a good thing I never changed my phone number in all these years. She wasn't in a great way when I picked her up from the vets.
"She was underweight, her claws hadn't been clipped and she had bad kidneys. Since she's been home, Sunshine has had some teeth taken out and medication to perk her up a bit – she's looking a lot better."
Pullen believes Sunshine to be about 19 years old now, and said, “It's nice to have her back again and knowing she's going to have a nice end to her life now. She might not be with us for very long, but at least she gets a nice retirement."
If you’re looking for advice about missing cats, here are six reasons why cats run away from home. Meanwhile, here’s how to find a lost cat
