WAILUKU, Hawaii – A Maui woman has been reunited with her cat that went missing about 15 years ago.
Tori Takayesu had received a call last month saying her cat had been found and was at the Maui Humane Society. The female cat, named James, was traced back to the Makawao resident through a number tattooed on her ear when she was spayed at the shelter years ago, The Maui News reported Sunday.
Takayesu said her family had James only for a short period of time before the animal disappeared in 2001.
“My kids had been looking for her at least a month or two months,” she said. “They were really sad. She didn’t come back. We couldn’t find her anywhere. We didn’t know what happened to her.”
When Takayesu received the Humane Society’s call on Jan. 26, she said she wasn’t convinced the cat could be the pet she lost more than a decade ago. It wasn’t until she went to pick up James at the shelter last week that she knew for sure.
“I really didn’t believe it until I laid eyes on her,” Takayesu said. “I did not believe this was my long-lost cat, that they would find her, that she would be in good shape, that she could come back to me. It’s crazy.”
Takayesu was told James was found on a street not too far from her family’s home.
Now that James has been reunited with the family, Takayesu said it’s “just like she never left.”
The cat is now 16 years old and weighs about 10 pounds.
“It’s really nice to think someone took care of her for all these years,” Takayesu said. “Clearly she was taken care of, even if people on the street fed her. And then to have her come back to me is so special.”
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