Cat missing from Biloxi found more than 1,000 miles away in Colorado

BILOXI, MS (WLOX) - Two years ago a Biloxi man's cat went missing. Up until an unlikely phone call last week, the man never thought he'd see his furry friend again. Christina Garcia spoke to the recently reunited cat owner, who said he's pretty sure his feline still has a few good lives left.

"I came home from work one day and he just wasn't there. Looked for him obviously for a long time and just kind of gave up hope," Cree Cantrell said about his pet cat Jacque.

It was two years ago that Cantrell said his adventurous cat went missing from his house boat in Biloxi.

"I always assumed that either he fell in the water, which he had done before or maybe a tourist or something walking on the beach picked him up," Cantrell said.

What exactly happened to Jacque is still a mystery, but where the cat ended up, surprising.

The three-year-old cat was more than 1,000 miles north of Biloxi at a veterinarian clinic in Denver, Colorado. The clinic called Cantrell's mother and she called her son.

Cantrell said, "I'm like, 'What do you mean you found Jacque? This has been two years now.' So I didn't really know what she was talking about, but she explained to me that he was in Colorado. I couldn't believe it. How's a cat get up there?"

Thanks to a microchip the size of a grain of rice, Jacque's identification information was scanned and he was brought back to Biloxi.

Humane Society of South Mississippi (HSSM) officials said this story just goes to show you the importance of getting your pets microchipped.

"The odds of the cat leaving home and surviving for long periods of time is very high, but the odds of a cat being returned to its owner is very low," said HSSM Community Engagement Manager Shelli Skiado.

With a microchip, the chances of getting the right animal back in the hands of its owner are more than 50 percent for the humane society.

"But without proper ID or a microchip, we might never return them and be able to reunite them with their family," Skiado said.

Skiado urges not only microchipping, but also updating your pet's microchip. Now a smarter cat, Jacque will spend his days with his owner and maybe even thinking about his next adventure.

Cantrell said he really never planned on getting Jacque microchipped.

But, when he brought him into the humane society to get neutered they suggested it and that's a decision he's glad he made.

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