Cat reunited with owners 14 years later

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A Canadian family that gave up on a lost 3-year-old cat near Winnipeg, Manitoba, 14 years ago has her back safe and sound.

Ingrid Kerger said she got a telephone call from an animal hospital asking if she had ever owned a female orange tabby cat or lived in Lockport, about 20 miles northeast of the city, the Winnipeg Free Press reported.

The answer was "yes" to both, and the clinic worker said a serial number tattoo on the cat had linked it to Kerger's old address.

She said Tiger Lily disappeared Oct. 12, 1996, and the family assumed the cat had been killed by a fox.

Meanwhile, Kerger and her family are baffled as to how Tiger Lily, now underweight but otherwise healthy, survived.

"If only she could talk, what a story," Kerger said.

She said she suspects the cat understands where she is, as it slept its first night with her son, who is now 23, the newspaper said.