I hope I'd get that kind of distinguished, grizzled look if I took off for 13 years.
No one knows why Moggy ran away (she was named Moggy?) in 2001, but that's not nearly as inexplicable as how she showed up back home 13 years later. Not that her family recognized her at first. When she showed up, she was a flea-ridden, fur-matted wreck of a stray that her owner Paula Harper-Adams of Geelong, Australia, immediately took to the vet like any good animal lover.
Once she was there, though, she just got a feeling. As Paula told 7News Melbourne, "It was standing at the vet, where I had this moment, where I thought, could it possibly be our cat that ran away 13 years ago?" Vet technicians dug up an old photo of Moggy and sure enough, all the markings matched, and the cat was certainly behaving like it knew everyone (to be fair, a lot of them always do that). Where Moggy had been, no one knows, but apparently she's found herself and is ready to settle down again.
Said Natalie Dorain, an administrator at the vet clinic, "For someone to find their cat after such a long time and wondering what had happened to your cat all that time, I think we all sort of felt pretty emotional about that." Sort of? I'm getting verklempt from thousands of miles away!
Ms. Harper-Adams got the cat a few weeks before finding out she was pregnant with her first child, so the animal is actually older than everyone else in the house now. That doesn't mean her son Charlie doesn't remember her from when he was very young. "I was literally jumping up and down when I found out," said Charlie.
We're pretty happy for you, too, Charlie. Now, remember to close the door on your way out from now on.
(by Johnny McNulty)