A New Zealand family is elated that their cat, Tuppence, is home after being missing for six weeks.
There are many tales about cats turning up after disappearing for long periods of time. But what’s different about Tuppence’s story is that while she was missing, her family moved to a new home more than nine kilometers (5.6 miles) away.
No one knows how she did it, but Tuppence, who had never been to the family’s new home, showed up last Tuesday night.
Monique Edwards-Shipton was watching TV when her wife, Renee, told her to look outside. She was amazed to see the family’s other cat, Madison, walking down the driveway with a barely recognizable Tuppence.
Tuppence had been “quite fat” before she disappeared, Edwards-Shipton said, but she was now extremely skinny. Her coat was dull and her paw pads were rough from her long journey.
“She came running over. We brought her in and I gave her a bit of a snuggle,” Edwards-Shipton said.
The family had been heartbroken when the 6-year-old Tuppence disappeared on September 24, the day they were moving to their new home.
Edwards-Shipton returned to their former residence every day to search for her beloved cat, who she referred to as “my heart and soul.”
She knocked on neighbors’ doors, posted flyers, contacted the SPCA and ran lost-cat ads in the local newspapers. But nobody had any news of Tuppence.
As the weeks passed, the family’s hopes dwindled. But Edwards-Shipton wouldn’t give up and kept looking for the cat.
Now that Tuppence is back, the family is overjoyed. Edwards-Shipton woke up her 10-year-old daughter, Jessiqua, to join in the celebration, and there were “lots of tears” shed.
The family fed Tuppence some sirloin steak for breakfast, and the tired but relieved cat spent first night after her return purring loudly.
“I didn’t get much sleep, but it’s a good no-sleep,” Edwards-Shipton said.
Edwards-Shipton has no idea how Tuppence managed to find her way back to her family, five miles from their original home. “It’s just crazy,” she said.
But even if this mystery is never solved, both Tuppence and her human family are ecstatic about the reunion.
[Source: Bay of Plenty Times]
