Owner Reunited With Cat That 'Wandered Away' From Home 6 Years Ago

Animal rescuers in San Antonio, Texas, recently reunited a cat with its owner after the animal "wandered away from home" six years ago, according to officials.

Posting to Facebook on Sunday, San Antonio Care Services (ACS) shared that its team received a call about a stray cat that "looked a little sick."

A responding officer, Adan Perez, scanned the stray for a microchip and discovered that the cat's name was Monkey Face; however, Perez also learned that the animal's listed address was outdated.

But Perez was determined to reunite the cat with its family, so he took Monkey Face to ACS, where it received a veterinary exam. Meanwhile, other ACS officials continued on in the search for the cat's owner.

"Once at ACS, Monkey Face received the care she needed from our medical team, and our placement staffers got to work searching for her parents," ACS wrote. "We already knew the address was out of date and quickly learned that the other contact information was as well.

"We didn't stop there; our team continued researching and worked hard to get in contact...after almost two weeks, we found Monkey Face's mom," ACS continued.

Pictures attached to the social media post show Monkey Face's owner, "Ms. F," petting and holding her long-lost companion.

"[The] reunion was PRICELESS! It was easy to see the joy they had cuddling after such a long time," described ACS.

Monkey Face and her owner aren't the first to be reunited after spending several years apart.

In September, Neil and Lucy Henderson, a couple in Scotland, were reunited with their cat Forbes after he went missing in March 2011.

"We looked for him for months and months, but we very sadly had to come to the realization that the worst may have happened," Neil told the Scottish SPCA.

So when they received a call in September—a decade later—from the Scottish SPCA that Forbes had been found, they were "over the moon."

"My wife phoned when I was on the motorway, and she told me I had to pull over," Neil said. "I was completely unprepared for what I was about to be told and hearing that Forbes had been found left me completely astounded."

Over the summer, Margaret Kudzma was reunited with her cat Mini Max after he jumped from her third-story Massachusetts condo six years prior.

Newsweek previously reported that Kudzma spent countless hours searching for her beloved cat to no avail. As a result of the loss, Kudzma started her own rescue organization and began fostering kittens out of her home.

When she received a call from a local veterinarian that her cat had been located, she "put the phone down," and created a separate room for Mini Max, away from the fosters.

All three cats in those stories have one thing in common: they were microchipped.

According to the ASPCA, "microchips are a good back-up option for pet identification," but should never be solely relied upon. This is because a person needs a special scanner to read a microchip; a scanner that a person's neighbor will not have.

"And if Fido wanders off, it's likely to be a private citizen who encounters them first. That's why, in the event of accidental separation, identification tags are your pet's first ticket home," the organization continued.

Still, the microchip is mighty powerful.

"These stories touch our hearts and reassure us of the work we do," said ACS in its post about Monkey Face.

"The power of the microchip, the hard-working team members, the care these pets receive...It's all connected to our mission to find homes for the pets in our care," ACS continued. "And Monkey Face wouldn't have it any other way!"