Family overjoyed after pet cat that went missing 10 years ago is found alive: 'Christmas miracle'

A pet going missing is always one of the worst fears of owners. Even when they go missing, you hope that they will be found within a few hours, failing which you fear the worst. One family was heartbroken when they lost their cat Mimi from their Long Island, New York, home in 2012. They never thought they would ever see the cat again and had even moved to Spain after the Price family retired. Almost ten years later, they were shocked to learn that Mimi had been found, and found alive. Mimi had been located and handed in by a Long Island animal shelter, from where they received a call. “Did you used to own a black-and-white cat?” the person on the other end asked them. They owned a fluffy, timid cat by the name of Mimi. However, it had been ten years since they last saw her, reported The Washington Post. 

After being adopted by the Price family for two years, Mimi vanished in 2012 after escaping through an open front door. They had given up on ever finding her after more than a year of fruitless scouring around New York. Following Richard Price's retirement, the pair relocated to Valencia, Spain, last year. They brought three cats: Patch, Tiny, and Groot, which they had acquired after losing Mimi. On December 5, Mimi was brought to the Brookhaven Animal Shelter and Adoption Center by a resident in Miller Place, New York, where she had been lost for ten years. The cat was discovered to have a microchip that allowed the workers to identify her owners. On that day, they gave the Price family a call at their old New York phone number.

“This is an incredibly rare Christmas miracle,” Richard Price told The Washington Post. He noticed Mimi in 2010 at an adoption agency on Long Island. She was a black cat with a white bib under her chin, and Price described her as "beautiful beyond compare." He made the facility a couple of visits over his lunch break before formally adopting Mimi. At first, the timid tuxedo cat hid until Price entered the enclosure of the adoption facility and sat on the floor. Before Mimi came out and let him pat her, he would put his hand close to where she was hiding. “You could see she wanted people. She wanted a family, she was just sort of scared about it all,” Price said. “So it just sort of won my heart over.”

Mimi, who had been living as a stray cat, was about two years old when she was adopted. But soon after, in 2012, the Prices left Mimi in the care of a relative while they went on vacation in the neighborhood of Miller Place. She was gone when they returned. Mimi snuck out of the house as the family member was about to depart and flew between their feet before vanishing into the nearby brush, according to Price. When Mimi fled in 2012, Price said she was staying with his sister-in-law in Miller Place, Long Island. He conducted a thorough search for her, making calls to nearby shelters and vets as well as posting posters, but to no avail.

Richard and Maria Price's next task is to get Mimi to Spain. Next month, Richard Price will pick her up and return to the country. Mimi is currently residing with his sister and niece. Price expressed his skepticism that Mimi will recall him. And he is placing a wager that she would first run away from him as she did all those years ago. But he promised to put his hand in the area in the hopes that she will emerge and they can rekindle their relationship.