March 18 (UPI) — A Maryland family whose pet cat went missing five years ago were reunited with the pet when she turned up in a stranger’s basement.
Melissa and Brooke Garci said Aremis, their indoor/outdoor cat, wandered away from home in Hickory in September 2021 and never came back.
The family canvassed the neighborhood and put up flyers, but there was no trace of Artemis.
The Harford County Humane Society said a woman came to the facility in February with a cat she found in her unfinished basement.
The shelter scanned the feline for a microchip, which identified her as Artemis.
“I was like, I couldn’t cry yet because I was in disbelief, but when I saw her, I was like, ‘OMG, she looks exactly the same,'” Brooke Garci told CBS Baltimore. “It was a beautiful thing.”
The humane society said the reunion was a reminder of the importance of having pets microchipped.