Jai Agnish

Staff Writer, @jaiagnish

WANAQUE — Jimmy, a 13-year-old brown tabby cat, went missing about 2½ years ago. Last week, after a tearful reunion, he was back together with his human family.

Jimmy was brought to the West Milford Animal Shelter Society after he was found 10 miles from home in the High Crest section of West Milford. The reunion was made possible after Jimmy's family saw his picture posted on the shelter's lost cat page.

Jimmy went missing on Sept. 13, 2014, said his owner, Susan Zelitsky.

Because he liked sneaking into parked cars through open windows, his family thinks he accidentally hitched a ride out of town.

On the night Jimmy went missing, Zelitsky said her husband let him go outside. When she called for him to come back in, he was not to be found.

It wasn't unusual for Jimmy to spend time outside. He sat on the front porch with Susan Zelitsky and her husband, Bob, and visited the neighbor across the street for treats. He would join them on walks with their dog, and even went to the bathroom outside, Zelitsky said.

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"He would go to the front door like a dog when he had to go to the bathroom, but he would always come back and meow at the door to come in," she said.

On that fateful night, Zelitsky called for the beloved pet around midnight, but he never came back. There was still no sign of Jimmy the next day, so the family searched the neighborhood, without any luck. They hung missing cat posters and reached out to police departments and shelters. There was no sign of him, Zelitsky said, adding, "We were devastated."

Zelitsky said she never really gave up searching in the months that followed, and she would sometimes call out for Jimmy when she walked the dog.

"Not only me, but my kids and husband, too," she said. "If I saw a cat that looked the same, I would wonder."

Jimmy was found in the High Crest section of West Milford and taken in after the March blizzard, according to the shelter's Real Cats at West Milford Animal Shelter Facebook page.

A post was placed on the Lost West Milford Pets Facebook page shortly after Jimmy was brought to the shelter. It received nearly 27,000 views and 600 shares. About five days later, there was a comment from Zelitsky under the post, followed by a flurry of private messages about the cat, with photographs. The reunion happened the next day.

"One of my Facebook friends had shared a post from WMASS with a picture, and I looked at it and thought how much he looked like Jimmy," Zelitsky recounted.

She went to the shelter first thing in the morning with her neighbor Dayna Devine, who originally gave her the cat. She brought along a pillowcase and dog toy that Jimmy had used for years, to see if they would provoke a reaction.

"When they opened the crate door, I said, 'Jimmy is that you, bud?' and he walked over and head-butted me and smooshed his nose into the dog's toy," she said. "I immediately started to sob. He started to rub up against us, and when I was rubbing his belly he nipped me, which he always did. He put his head in Dayna's hands and he started to purr loudly."

She compared photographs and his markings.

"I was convinced it was my boy," she said. "I called my husband and he came to the shelter. When he saw Bob, he did the same head-butt."

The cat is home now and doing fine. Zelitsky said he was in pretty good shape considering he was out and about for so long.

"When it was OK to let him roam the house, he walked around like he owned the place," Zelitsky said. While Jimmy was lost, the family brought two new kittens into their home.

"The new kitties, who are 2, welcomed him, and everyone is one big happy family," she said.

She said her two daughters were skeptical at first, and it took some convincing for them to realize it was indeed Jimmy returned from the wild.

"My younger daughter came home from work and he was laying on my bed, and she said, 'Who the heck is that?' " Zelitsky said. "I said go close, and he immediately rolled over for belly rubs, and she cried and cried. My older daughter was a bit skeptical and worried how the kitties would react, but after a few days of Jimmy being up to his old habits, she was all in."

Zelitsky said the cat was very familiar with the layout, and he's been doing many things that he had done in the past, like sleeping on her husband's chest and his favorite dining room chair.

"If it wasn't for the wonderful people at WMASS, we would have never had this happy reunion," she said.

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Social media definitely help reunite families with their lost pets, but a 2.5 2½-year separation like this is unusual, said one of the shelter volunteers.

Another cat went home this week as a result of the Lost West Milford Pets page, she said.

"The reality is they are out there. They have just separated themselves," she said. "We try to get them back to the family, because we know that there is a family out there whose heart isn't whole."

The volunteer said they also track animals with microchips and use trail cams for assistance in locating them. One pet was tracked through three different states after it is believed to have hopped into a landscaping truck.

Jimmy did not have a microchip, Zelitsky said.

Visit westmilfordanimalshelter.org for information.

Email: Agnish@northjersey.com