When Sherri Oakley’s house cat went missing five years ago and the search party came back empty-handed, Oakley and her family lost hope — until she heard a knock on the door on June 23.

Animal control officer Meredith Edney stood at her front door with a crate and inside was a slightly older Leo.

“It really was a miracle,” Oakley said.

According to Edney, they found Leo a few streets down from their home.

“I received a call on June 23 for a sick stray cat,” Edney said. “I attended and found him walking down the street, he had a minor eye infection.”

Edney says she immediately found and scanned the microchip for him. The microchip company that the chip was registered with identified Sherri as the owner, who lived a couple of streets over.

“The moment they let him out of the crate, he walked around the house like he knew exactly where he was going,” Oakley said.

Sherri Oakley and her son, Josh Maynard, had adopted Leo — an orange tabby — from a shelter when Josh was 10 years old.

During a family get together in the spring of 2013, a guest, who was unaware that Leo was not an outdoor cat, let him out.

That was the last Oakley saw of him.

They reported it to animal control, Oakley says, and were hoping he would be located through his microchip.

“I didn’t realize how long he had been missing until I spoke with Sherri, who mentioned he had been missing for five years.”

Since it had been five years since Leo had gone missing, Sherri had thrown out all of Leo’s things, according to Edney. She gave Sherri a bag of cat food she had in her truck.

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Typically, Edney says, the city keeps records of lost pets for up to six months. If animal services is contacted by the owner of the pet before the end of that time, the time is extended.

“Luckily Leo was microchipped and registered with the city, so we could return him home,” she said.