(Picture: Caters News)

Never give up hope in your cat.

13 years after her cat went missing, Kelly LaVette was reunited with her beloved pet – all thanks to a miracle rescue from Alison Ferguson, 42, Georgia.

Alison is an official cat rescuer, co-creating The Cat Networking Agents with Hayley Zielinski, 50.

Hayley picked up the cat from a high kill shelter earlier this month, then brought her to Alison for fostering.


Alison noticed the cat looked sad and decided to find out if she was microchipped. It turned out she was, and Alison discovered that the cat had somehow travelled 75 miles away from her registered home with Kelly in South Carolina.



It turned out the cat’s name was Abby, which held special significance for Alison, who had lost her first dog, also called Abby, the year before.

Unfortunately both the phone number and email registered on Abby’s microchip were no longer in service, meaning it wasn’t easy to track down her original owner.

All Alison had to work with was the name registered to the chip: Kelly Amandrell.

She messaged every Kelly Amandrell she could find on Facebook living in Connecticut until she received a response from Kelly, last name now LaVette.

Alison was able to reunite Kelly with the cat she’d lost 13 years ago, and now the cat, named Jill, seems happier than ever.

Kelly said: ‘I only had Abby for about a month before she got away.

(Picture: Caters News Agency)

‘I was living in an apartment with a foyer so she must have got outside when one of the neighbours opened the door.

‘I put up flyers and asked around, but no one replied, it was in the downtown area so was a lot harder to go looking for her with all the buildings and places she could have been.

‘It was so long ago, so I was definitely surprised that no one had ever scanned the microchip in that long a time.

‘I knew it was something unusual when I was contacted using my maiden name, which I hadn’t heard for a very long time.

‘It just seems like a miracle – I had to go through my memory bank to remember what happened and after that I knew I had to adopt her again, it seemed like fate.

‘In between her going missing I have had two more children, finished college, have been teaching for the last ten years, moved away five-years-ago and only recently came back.

(Picture: Caters News Agency)

‘I didn’t take Jill out until we got home, she seemed shy at first but a couple of days after that she definitely warmed up to me.

‘She follows me everywhere, sleeps next to me, cuddles with me and wherever I am she is right there.’

Alison is overjoyed she was able to reunite the cat with her rightful owner.

Alison said: ‘She was at a high kill shelter, Hayley picked five cats of all different colours and brought them to me.



‘She happened to be the one tabby cat she picked that day, so for her then to get reunited with her old owner you have to think what the chances are.

‘The microchipped revealed she had gone missed from Columbia, South Caroline, which was 75 miles away from where she was brought in.

(Picture: Caters News Agency)

‘We believe she must have moved with her other owners as she would not have been able to survive for all that time.

‘It ended up being a miracle, it’s certainly a million to one chance of that happening.

‘I think stories like this give other people who have lost their cats a bit of hope.

‘Kelly tells me that she is the most affectionate cat now and even sleeps on her pillow.

‘I wasn’t expecting her to come-around that quickly based on what I had seen, so maybe she just knows she is with her forever person now and is comfortable.’

The Cat Networking Agents are a branch of the larger non-profit, Dog Networking Agents, who help abandoned and shelter pets find new homes. It’s run by Alison, Hayley, and other volunteers, and at their peak they have been able to help 75 cats find a forever home in a month.

MORE: Your anxiety levels could be stressing out your cat

MORE: UK’s unluckiest dog has spent five years looking for a home

MORE: Attention, animal lovers: There is now a care home for ageing sloths

Advertisement Advertisement