PORTLAND, Maine — A Maine family that long ago gave up on a lost family cat is being reunited — more than six years and 1,500 miles later.
Denise Cilley, of Chesterville, Maine, said she was shocked to get a voicemail last week announcing her cat, Ashes, had been found in Florida.
Ashes went missing in 2015 during her daughter's 10th birthday celebration.
“They looked for her for quite a while, and they sadly concluded she probably had become prey for a predator,” Janet Williams, a family friend in Florida who took temporary custody of the cat, told WABI-TV.
A microchip was reportedly able to help a veterinarian's office determine the kitty's identity.
How she got to Florida remains a mystery.
“I have interrogated her quite strictly and she is not talking,” Williams said via the Maine news station.
Ashes was being returned to Maine on Wednesday. Cilley said she planned to be on hand to collect her pet at the Portland International Jetport.
10 Tampa Bay's Courtney Holland contributed to this report.
