Lost Cat Returns at Christmas 7 Years Later Thanks to Microchip
This is another brilliant example of the benefits of micro-chipping cats. Is also a little tale which highlights the mentality of the domestic cat because sometimes even in the best homes domestic cats who are allowed outside go wandering and don’t come back. This puzzles people. It is often not because of the cat’s caretakers but because of the cat’s mentality. That independence and that inherent wild cat nature comes to the fore sometimes and some domestic cats almost revert to the wild or they prefer to share their presence with more than one family which is a halfway stage between domestication and wild living.
Miko and Elena: Photograph: Bernd von Jutrczenka / AFP / Getty Images
The cat in question this time is Miko. He lived with a family in Berlin until 2008. He then went missing and despite the usual strenuous efforts to find him it was to no avail.
The family learned on this Christmas Day just past that their cat Miko had been found and taken to a local refuge centre. He was found only a few kilometres from his home area. This once again also tells us that when outdoor domestic cats go missing they often won’t be far away. There are simply roaming around in what they consider to be there home range – the territory outside of the family household in which they consider their home. For the domestic cat the home range is rarely more than a several acres but could extend further.
Elena Hanke was 11 years old when she lost her beloved black-and-white cat. She is now 18 and delighted to be reunited with him. As mentioned in the title, it was thanks to micro-chipping that Miko was reunited with his human caretakers.
Miko was healthy albeit a little thin when found which to me indicates that he was behaving as a community type cat rather than a feral cat. This means he was probably sharing his home with other people but living outside some of the time.
Elena was reunited with her long lost cat companion at the shelter when she went to pick him up with her father and sister Jennifer.
The power of the microchip cannot be underestimated sometimes. It brought this family their best Christmas present in a long while. The big question that remains now is whether Miko will remain in their household and not repeat his escapades. He is probably of the type who likes to wonder. You can’t get that out of a cat’s system except for the passage of time bringing on old age.
There is one last philosophical point: does Miko want to be rescued and reunited? Perhaps he enjoyed his roaming, semi-wild life.
Source: Guardian and my thanks to Elisa Black-Taylor.