Kim Collier never forgot her missing cat, Tilly.
She desperately put up posters and searched for her missing pet, who vanished in 2004 after moving from England to Midlothian, Scotland.
Despite there being no sign of Tilly, Kim still diligently updated the cat’s microchip details with two subsequent house moves in the following 17 years.
But a surprise call this week changed everything.
Kim, a vet nurse, was contacted by the SSPCA ‘out of the blue’ asking if she had a cat called Tilly.
‘I was thinking “I did but ages ago”. The officer said she had her in the back of the van and I was like “what?”, she told the Daily Record.
‘It was a very odd feeling, I didn’t really know if I was coming or going. My world was turned upside down…but in a good way.’
Miraculously, Tilly had been found in the same area she had went missing from 17 years ago.
The SSPCA had been contacted by a concerned member of the public who had spotted the cat, who was in urgent need of medical care.
Tilly, who will turn 20 this year, is suffering from a bladder tumour and is ‘reaching the end of her life.’
The woman who found her, who has just moved to the area, said she was covered in matt and was ‘skin and bone’.
Tilly is receiving palliative care at the Pentland Veterinary Clinic. Once she regains some strength, Kim hopes to bring her home so they can spend the cat’s final days together.
Kim said: ‘I’m not going to give up on her. All the staff here [at the clinic] are so nice and have taken her under their wing.
‘She’s got jumpers to keep her warm and gets to come in the office, she’s very spoiled.
‘The main thing is she is safe and the vets here are giving her amazing care. We know the outcome is not great but I just want to make her comfortable.’
Kim has urged others who have missing pets to update their microchip details and for everyone to be on the lookout for potentially lost animals.
Kim and Tilly’s 17-year-reunion is similar to the story of Colin Clayton and his wife, Eva Bellamy. The couple lost their cat Big Ginge from aboard a canal boat in 2011.
It wasn’t until 10 years later that a call from Cats Protection Lichfield and Tamworth revealed their cat had been found.
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