A Welshman has been reunited with a family cat who has been lost for 12 years.
Then just 17 years old, Theo-Will McKenna was attending a university near the family’s home in Connah’s Quay, Wales when their cat Artie got out and never came home.
McKenna remembers staying out for hours with a bag of treats but couldn’t locate their beloved white and grey cat. McKenna would visit once a week for months to look some more, but gradually lost hope of ever seeing Artie again.
“I reached the point where I thought that either, God forbid, something had happened to him, or someone else [had] taken him in,” he said.
Then in 2024, residents of a home in Connah’s Quay called a local veterinarian after a grey and white cat appeared in their backyard one day, and stayed put for four days straight.
The respondent vet found that the cat, who turned out to be the missing Artie, was carrying a microchip registered to Theo-Will McKenna’s mother and a contact number for North Clwyd Animal Rescue (NCAR).
NCAR got the call and came to pick up Artie, but with the microchip registered to an old phone number, they took to Facebook to try and find the McKennas. One of Theo-Will’s friends apparently recognized Artie and sent the post to him
“They got him stable and then posted on their Facebook page, explaining that he’d been found… My friend saw it and sent me the post—it took me a second to recognize him, because he looked so bedraggled and skinny,” McKenna said.
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“It didn’t feel real. I thought there was no way it could be him,” he added. “It had been 12 years—he went missing when I was 17. I thought no cat could survive 12 years on the street.”
Artie then received some much-needed medical treatment, “removed some teeth, treated his hyperthyroidism, and took out some precancerous lumps in his ears,” McKenna said, adding that while Artie’s days on the streets were behind him, new challenges remained—like getting used to McKenna’s other cat.
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“We’re still in the trial period, but he’s been completely fine. He’s purring up a storm every time I go near him… My other cat has been a little bit wary, but we’ve been doing introductory methods and getting her used to his smell. It’s a slow process, but I’m absolutely determined that he’s staying with me.”
McKenna set up a GoFundMe to ensure that 16-year-old Artie receives all the medical care he needs in the twilight years of a tumultuous life. His veterinary care amounts to about $65 per month.
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