‘I hopped in the car and made the eight and a half hour drive from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale to pick up my cat who I hadn’t seen in nine years! ‘: Foster home escapee found after decade by allergic family who reunited him with his original cat mom

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Dec 3, 2025 3:00 PM EST

It is no big secret that the Cat Distribution System is an other worldly wonder that simply cannot be explained in any kind of plain English. It has no one way of working and no one way of deciding who gets what cat.

But the one thing that is clear about it is that it gets cats to the homes that they need to be in. and much like the many stories we have shared about it in the past, this story too tells the tale of a cat getting to the home they needed to be in, the exciting part being that the home is in Atlanta when the cat is in Fort Lauderdale and the cat would be coming home to its pawrent from nine years before. A truly unreal result to a story that makes little to no sense. The only thing we can say with any kind of certainty is that the CDS works in mysterious and mind-boggling ways.

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  • 01
    About a week ago, I'm working an event on Saturday evening when my phone rings. The number isn't in my contacts, so I think it's spam and dismiss it. They call back, I do the same thing. They call
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    back again and I'm like WTH is going on here. I still don't answer, but shortly after, I get a text message from the same number. It's the Humane Society of Broward County (Fort Lauderdale)
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    asking me if I've lost a cat. I immediately bolt outside and call the number back. The woman asks me if I've lost a cat and I tell her I did, NINE YEARS AGO!
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  • Holy what in the heck? This is truly unprecedented. Like in what world is this cat turning up in this woman’s life once again after almost a decade of being on the lamb? This has  got to be some sort of Cat Distribution System type wizardry right?

  • 04
    A week before I was moving from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta nine years ago October 1st, my friend said she would foster my cat during the move (I
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    also had a big dog and it was just me) and then bring him up when I got settled. So, I brought him over and got him set up. The next day, she calls me hysterically crying.
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    She's opened her sliding glass door to get something off her patio and the cat bolted out, climbed the fence, and ran off.
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    Cheezburger Image 10582295552
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    So, for the next week, we walked around, put up signs, all the things you'd do, but to no avail. My house was sold and all my things shipped, so I had to go and I did.
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    She continued to look and anytime for the next couple of years I'd come down to visit, I'd drive around my old neighborhood calling his name. I
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    had adopted him from the Humane Society, so he had a chip, so I knew if he was found they would call me. But, after a couple of years I gave up hope and figured he was just gone.
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    So it was much to my amazement when they called me and told me that he just wandered up to somebody's house and they took him in and found the chip. He was staying with
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  • Wow, it is almost as though after traveling the world for a good few years, the cat turned to the Cat Distribution System and said: “hey, I want to go home”. To which the CDS replied: “ok, all you have to do is go up to this house, from there we will take over and get you home.”

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    the family that found him and the Humane Society gave them my number. I spoke to the husband and asked him if he wanted to keep the cat. It was most
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    important to me that he was in a loving home, mine or someone else's. Unfortunately, the man's wife is allergic to cats, so they couldn't keep him. He said he was a
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    really cool cat and didn't want to return him to the shelter. I told him absolutely not! I asked if he could just hang onto him for a few days while I made arrangements.
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    A few days later, I hopped in the car and made the eight and a half hour drive from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale to pick up my cat OBJ who I hadn't seen in nine years! OBJ He purred
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    and meowed when I picked him up, so I think he remembered me. He definitely wasn't skinny, so I think someone's been taking care of him,
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    or at least he'd been getting fed by a few different people. So, without further ado, Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the one and only, Mr. Cheese!
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    Bi... He spent a lifetime returning to your side.
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    Du... They're not tears in my eyes, I promise.
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    A... I am glad you found him back. I can never imagine if I lost my cat. Gj Mr. Cheese! Back to where you are supposed to retire.
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cat drive allergic found escape cat mom car seen reunited foster reddit story Atlanta years hours cat story pick up family fort home decade original
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