- A Maryland family reunites with their cat Artemis after five years.
- The cat was found in a basement and identified via microchip.
- The family was shocked and emotional during the reunion with Artemis.
HARTFORD COUNTY, Md. — A Harford County family was reunited with their cat, who went missing five years ago.
Melissa and Brooke Garci thought they were never going to see their cat, Artemis, again, until the most unlikely scenario played out.
In September 2021, Artemis, an indoor/outdoor cat, never returned to her Hickory, Maryland, home.
The Garcis made fliers in a desperate attempt to find her.
"I posted them around the neighborhood, rolled them up, and put them in people's doors, knocked, and got nothing," Melissa Garci said.
Emotional reunion
Five years later, a woman brought a cat to the Harford County Humane Society that she had found in her unfinished basement.
As standard procedure, the shelter scanned the cat for a microchip and called the listed number.
"This woman answered, 'Hello?' And we said we have your cat, and she was unbelieving. And she said, 'Are you sure? My cat has been missing for five years,'" said Erin Long, with the Harford County Humane Society.
Long says she has never seen an animal reunited with its owners after that much time, and the Garcis were just as shocked.
"I was like, I couldn't cry yet because I was in disbelief, but when I saw her, I was like, 'Omg, she looks exactly the same,'" Brooke Garci said.
"It was a beautiful thing"
Photos from the tearful reunion show the moments Artemis stepped out of her carrier and laid eyes on her long-lost family.
"He kind of walked out of the kennel and looked at them and went right over and was rubbing on them, got in mom's lap, got in daughter's lap. It was a beautiful thing," Long said.
While we'll never truly know where Artemis was this whole time, what we do know is that the name Artemis comes from the Greek goddess for hunting and wilderness, and after surviving five years on her own, she certainly lives up to it.
"Her instincts are strong," said Brooke Garci.
The Humane Society urges people to microchip their pets and make sure to keep the information associated with the chip up to date.
It could make all the difference if your pet ever gets lost.
