- Artie, the cat missing from his home in Wales in 2012
- The feline reappeared in a garden near his former home in 2024, 12 years after his disappearance
- A microchip and a Facebook post helped reunite Artie with his original owner
Facebook helped an elderly cat reconnect with the family that has missed him for 12 years.
According to SWNS, Artie, the indoor and outdoor pet cat, failed to return to his home in Connah’s Quay, Wales, one night in 2012 and remained missing after that fateful night.
The animal’s family spent months looking for the feline after its disappearance, but after six months of rigorous searches, they found nothing and began to lose hope.
“After six months, it got to the point where I thought something had happened to him or someone had taken him in,” Theo-Will McKenna, one of the cat’s owners, told SWNS.
It’s unclear how Artie the cat spent his time between 2012 and 2024, but in May this year, the feline turned up in a vegetable garden near his former Connah’s Quay residence.
The garden owners took Artie to a local veterinarian to be checked for a microchip. The vet found a microchip that contained outdated contact information for his owners and his original home, North Clwyd Animal Rescue (NCAR).
Theo-Will McKenna/SWNS
“He appeared in their garden and stayed there for four days. He didn’t go away, he just stayed there,” McKenna said of Artie’s reappearance. “They caught him and took him to the vet, who scanned his microchip. The chip was still registered to my mother at our old address in Blaken, but the NCAR always remained on the microchip as a secondary contact.”
As soon as NCAR received a call about Artie, they picked the animal up from the vet and posted photos of the feline on Facebook, hoping to find the cat’s owner.
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A friend of McKenna’s saw the post and recognized Artie as his friend’s long-lost pet. The friend sent the information to McKenna.
“It took me a second to recognize him because he looked so dirty and thin,” the pet dad explained when he saw Artie again. “It didn’t feel real. I thought there was no way it could be him.”
“It’s been 12 years – he disappeared when I was 17. I didn’t think any cat could survive 12 years on the street,” McKenna added.
Theo-Will McKenna/SWNS
According to McKenna, NCAR was “absolutely brilliant” during Artie’s rescue and helped the cat clean up before returning home.
“They did some medical work on him – removed some teeth, treated his hyperthyroidism and removed some pre-cancerous lumps in his ears,” McKenna told SWNS.
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Artie moved back in with McKenna and his owner’s new feline. The felines cohabit peacefully and Artie seems grateful to be back in a loving home.
“He purrs up a storm every time I get near him,” McKenna said.
Theo-Will McKenna/SWNS
The cat lover added that he is determined to keep Artie, now 16, for as long as he can, including covering the expensive ongoing medical care the cat now requires.
McKenna started a fundraiser to help cover some expenses and was moved to receive enough money to cover months of Artie’s medical bills.
The owner said the funds will allow Artie to spend his twilight years “somewhere he loved – which will be here.”
