Cat from Colorado found in N.Y. 5 years later

A furry feline named Willow, who was last seen five years ago in Colorado, was found this week roaming the streets of New York.

How Willow traveled from Broomfield, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, to New York -- a distance of more than 1,600 miles -- over a span of five years is a mystery.

CNN story

Cats seem to be popular on ATS, so I thought some of you might be interested in this story....and maybe have one of your own to share. My own tale is that we once adopted a Collie who escaped on his first night at our place and turned up at his former owner's house 30 miles away, two days later. Everyone decided that the dog should stay with the original owner after that. No question about it. The dog lived happily ever after, and we adopted a Beagle who chewed his way through our macrame hammock (but we loved him anyway).

Have you ever had a pet find its way back to you after being lost?

reply to post by graceunderpressure
Interesting.
Initially, I was wondering if it was the original owners(*X), who found the cat. I was also wondering how they knew it was the same cat. Well, that was before I saw this↓.

Willow tested positive for a microchip, and her Colorado owners, Chris and Jamie Squires, were later contacted, according to Bank.

Now I'm even more confused. I have not read much about those chips, because I would never put one into my feline friends body. Regardless of that though, I thought the whole point of those chips was to make it possible for the pet to be found, in case they get lost. Apparently, I was wrong about that, because they should have been able to find it 5 years ago. Now, a few more thoughts & questions have entered my mind.

What is the method that is used to 'test' for a chip?

What are those chips actually for?

(*X)It's sad that the first word, that comes to mind, when referring to the people in Colorado, is 'owners.'

It is possible, that there is now a child, in New York, who will never again see his/her feline friend, because that friend has now been catnapped(?) and will soon be taken across the country. He/she will then be given to strangers. They do not know for sure that the cat wants to return to Colorado.



[color=999999]It is an interesting story, nonetheless.
Those were just some thoughts I had.

edit on 9/15/11 by BrokenCircles because: (no reason given)