Ritz escaped 16 years ago , and his owners were in disbelief when an animal hospital texted them his microchip information .
The text message must ’ve been almost impossible for Jason and Liz McKenry to believe . Their cat , Ritz , had been found 16 years ( ! ) after he escaped Jason ’s Delaware apartment .
Ritz was spite and was about to be put down when Lums Pond Animal Hospital staff found hismicrochipand then give notice Jason McKenry on Monday , according to theDelaware News Journal . No one knows how he spent the past 16 years , but he finally , finally , catch to see his family again .
Photo: Ilaria Perillo / EyeEm / Getty
" I wish well he could talk , " Jason McKenry tell the paper . " I ’d love to get a line his account . "
Ritz , a gray tabby cat now around 18 year young , escaped on June 14 , 2006 , when he bolted through a door open up by McKenry ’s roomie . Later , a neighbor told him Ritz had start from the bottom of his tone arm truck as he was driving . McKenry posted flyers and kept in touch with fauna tax shelter for months but had no luck , theNews Journalreported .
His search wound down . He hook up with Liz , and they had two fry and moved to Maryland .
" We just kind of reckon that if he live the first month , surely by now he was gone , " Liz McKenry told the newsprint .
Thankfully , she was wrong . The newspaper account that about two years ago , Emily Russell noticed a gray queen visiting her abode near Lums Pond . She began feed him and list him Tom . He would log Z’s under nomadic homes , and he was the only ferine cat who would permit her pet him .
Then Tom prove up at her door hurt . His mitt and one of his back leg were injured . Russell told theNews Journalit looked like he ’d been hit by a car . So she take on him to the brute infirmary , and the stave there found Tom’s — Ritz’s — microchip .
" I started bawling my eyes out , " Russell told the newspaper . " If I had known he had a splintering , I would have taken him sooner , but he just looked like a feral Arabian tea . "
After encounter the fateful text , Liz McKenry called the vet ’s office in disbelief , enquire if they were sure it was Ritz . Yup , he ’s a greyish queen , they told her . She then cried for an time of day , the newspaper reported .
" Sixteen year ? That ’s a new disk as far as I know , " Tom Sharp , president ofAKC Reunite , a home database for microchipped pets , told the newspaper publisher . " That ’s amazing . "
They drove up to Delaware and reunite with their dear cat . After he receive treatment , the McKenrys learn him to Liz ’s mum ’s home where he could rest comfortably . He ’s being friendly , but they are n’t sure if Ritz recognize them .
" He ’s patently had a long , consequential biography , " Jason McKenry told theNews Journal . " But he ’ll be comfortable for whatever time he has left . “you may record the entire Delaware News Journal storyhere .
