It's a Catmas meowicle!
A 20-year-old special needs cat named Christopher has been reunited with his family after he was missing for two months.
"He's been with us through all the milestones in our family: The birth of our kids, our honeymoon everything, so he's been with us for quite a long time," said Amber Botsch, who adopted Christopher in 1999.
The Elmbrook Humane Society says Christopher was brought to them on Oct. 25. Staff found his name through a microchip, and later discovered he had a rare disease called laryngeal paralysis as well as an enlarged heart.
The contact information on the microchip was out of date, and after no one claimed him from the lost pets page, Christopher went up for adoption.
Botsch says her family moved to Wisconsin from Minnesota in October. During the process of bringing in boxes, Christopher escaped.
"We start kind of driving around, we start looking under trees, we thought maybe this was his time [because] he's 20," Botsch said.
When he did not come home after two months, the family began looking for a new cat to adopt. Much to their surprise, during their search the family found Christopher's photo on the EBHS website.
"You see a cat, you see a cat and all of a sudden I saw my cat," Botsch said. "I'm like, that's the rub on his nose, that's the two nicks on his ear, his name is Christopher...I called right away."
Within 30 minutes, Christopher was back home.
"He was the best Christmas present ever," Botsch said.
Heather Gehrke, the executive director at the EBHS said this story is a good reminder for families to make sure contact information on microchips is up to date.
“If you lose your pet, it is so incredibly important to report it with local humane societies and other organizations, such as Lost Cats of Wisconsin and Lost Dogs of Wisconsin,” Gehrke said.
