Earlier this month, a man named Robert received an unexpected call that left him in shock: His beloved cat, Chebon, was alive.
Seven years had passed since Robert had last seen Chebon, who went missing just before they were supposed to move from California to Ohio. Robert, who asked that his last name be withheld, put off his relocation to stay and search for his beloved pet, but after a year with no luck and no leads, he had to move on.
“I remember at one point I was praying and I said, ‘God, I’ll do anything, just bring my Chebon back,’” Robert said in a video posted on the Ventura County Animal Services’ Facebook page.
Then, the impossible happened. A kind lady spotted a sickly-looking cat on the side of the road and brought him to a local vet. Besides being a bit dehydrated and dirty from living on the streets, the cat was surprisingly healthy. And when they scanned him for a microchip, Robert’s name came up. They also discovered that the cat was, in fact, 19 years old.
“I was afraid there was some kind of mistake,” Robert said.
Robert booked a flight to Los Angeles as soon as he could and drove up to Camarillo Animal Shelter. He was brought into a private room and as they opened a cardboard box, his eyes softened.
When Robert and Chebon saw each other for the first time in seven years, it was as if no time had passed. And there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
“Everyone in that room — there was another animal control officer and she was crying, I was tearing up,” Randy Friedman, marketing manager for Ventura County Animal Services, told The Dodo. “It was amazing from beginning to end — and it was all because of a microchip.”
You can watch the emotional reunion here:
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FVCAnimalServices%2Fvideos%2F564556727629203%2F&show_text=0&width=267
Chebon climbed out of the box and wrapped his paws around his dad’s shoulder as if he knew he was finally safe.
“At one point, [Chebon] hugged him, and Robert just started bawling,” Friedman said. “You don’t see that in cats too much … It was just so touching.”
Now that Chebon is finally back home where he belongs, he can spend his golden years in comfort. And the two will never let each other go ever again.
Source THE DODO.
