A cat that went missing three years ago has been returned to his owner.
Isabel Connor was living in Westmere where she’d recently moved house. She had kept Leo, her beloved cat, inside for two weeks to help him adjust.
In June 2018, she let him outside. “But he never came back,” Connor says.
Then began her drastic search. She put his litter tray and food outside, posted on the local Facebook pages, and asked neighbours.
“He is microchipped so we knew if someone had handed him in to a vet or shelter they would contact us,” Connor says.
As time passed, and she lost hope, Connor moved to Botany.
On October 8, she received a mind-blowing call. A vet informed Connor that Leo had been found and his microchip scanned. A woman named Rebecca had found him and scanned him from her house.
“I was speechless,” Connor says.
“I just couldn’t comprehend he was still alive. My mind went into overdrive with all the things we needed to get and set up before he could come home.”
A house of flatmates in Grey Lynn helped lure Leo into a cat carrier with food. It took three days to get him secured.
“Once he was in, I just went and picked him up,” she says.
“It’s so surreal having him home.”
Connor told the Times that Leo is exactly the same cat he was three years ago.
“He has the same habits and behaviour as he did before,” she says.
“He’s more alert now, he acts to loud sounds like dogs or cars, but, other than that, he’s settled and pretty cuddly.”
Connor doesn’t know for sure where Leo was during his three-year absence. He was found a few roads down from the house he went missing from.
“He doesn’t look like a stray and the vet said he’s very healthy,” Connor says, “so we assume someone let him into their home and was feeding him.”
