Smithville, Ont., woman 'dumbfounded' after cat missing for nearly 10 years is found

A Smithville, Ont., woman says her cat, which had been missing for nearly 10 years, has been found and is safely home.

Frances Lommen said after years of searching for Hobbs, she believed that her now 14 year-old, male, grey, possible Maine coon-cross cat, had found a new home.

"When they called me Wednesday night and told me they had my cat, I was in total disbelief," Lommen told CBC News Friday morning.

"I was dumbfounded! No way! It's been 10 years!"

Watch: Frances Lommen is reunited with her cat Hobbs after almost 10 years:

Hobbs turned up at the Lincoln County Humane Society (LCHS) in St. Catharines. He was turned over by a resident who found him around his house in Jordan Station, in the Town of Lincoln, more than 25 kilometres away.

The man brought Hobbs to the LCHS shelter, but lost him in the parking lot. After working to find wayward Hobbs throughout the day, the LCHS caught him, and moments later staff scanned a microchip implanted in Hobbs and traced his owner.

He's always been a 'wayward' cat

Lommen says Hobbs was an indoor-outdoor cat but he was always "wayward," with a history of leaving home.

Hobbs had been picked up by the SPCA twice. The first time was in August 2010, when he was picked up from Welland, she explained.

"He went out, I believe it was on a Thursday night [and] I got a call Friday morning saying that they have my cat."

'Took off again'

But she says Hobbs soon took off again and she did not see him again until February 2011.

"He came back to me again one night in the winter and I got him back in the house," Lommen said.

A couple weeks later, one of her son's friends let the cat out, not knowing that he shouldn't, and Hobbs was off again.

"I thought if he found a home somewhere else, that he obviously doesn't like [my home], so why do I want to keep trying to bring him in?" Lommen said.

That was until she got the call on Wednesday night.

"Sure enough I went there, but of course Hobbs … I remember him as this beautiful four-year-old cat that was healthy and strong and everything, and I got there and he was this poor old man," Lommen said.

"He's matted and he's got weepy eyes and skinny and I was going 'oh, you poor cat.' He recognized me and I got him. I brought him home, he has his own bedroom now. He's going to need a lot of sleep. He's going to need a lot of TLC so I've been working on him, cleaned his ears, cleaned his eyes and he's eating, he's good.

"Now it's a lot of love and I'm going really, really going to try to keep him inside and hopefully he won't take off," added Lommen.

'Microchips work'

Lommen said the fact that she's been able to get her cat back after so many years reinforces that "microchips work."

Kevin Strooband, executive director of the LCHS Animal Clinic, agrees.

"This reunion really signifies the importance of microchipping your pet. We scan every animal that comes into our shelter and are seeing more and more of these happy reunions" Strooband said.

"We were so pleased to be a part of this happy reunion, a decade later."