Lost cat reunited with French family after 11 years thanks to identification tattoo
Shelter discovered injured elderly cat had identification tattoo which helped to track down previous owners
The cat went missing after the family moved home. Photo for illustrative purposes only
Okssi/Shutterstock
A cat that went missing 11 years ago has been reunited with his previous owners thanks to his identification tattoo.
The ‘miracle’ story reinforces the importance of having pets microchipped (the modern version of identifying tattoos) and registered on France’s pet database.
Félix was adopted in Valence (Drôme) in 2008 by Stéphanie and her family when he was a four-month-old kitten. In 2014, the family moved to a new neighbourhood, which they said was home to aggressive dogs.
After being unable to find him for several months, the family assumed their cat had encountered one of the dogs.
However, earlier this year Félix resurfaced in an animal shelter in Drôme, close to where the family originally lived.
A woman had reported an injured stray cat in the area, and when staff brought him back to the shelter they discovered Félix’s tattoo.
Although the phone number and address connected to the tattoo was out of date, the shelter launched a social media campaign to find his owners.
Contacted through Facebook, Stéphanie went to the shelter to collect Félix.
“It’s a miracle!” she said when holding Félix in her arms, visibly moved to be reunited after so long.
Importance of tracing information
The story reinforces the importance of ensuring animals are signed up to France’s I-CAD pet database.
Although tattooing has now been replaced by microchipping, it allows vets to identify animals in the event they become lost or are separated from their owners.
In cases where a person moves or has new contact information (phone number, email address etc) they should update this on the database to ensure they can be contacted as easily as possible.
Registration is a pre-requisite for an EU pet passport.
A Connexion reader who recently lost her cat also warned of scammers trying to manipulate grieving owners into paying them money to help find their missing pets.
