Lost and found: Northwest Georgia woman reunited with beloved cat after 7 years

WALKER COUNTY, Ga. (WTVC) — A Rock Spring, Georgia pet owner is in disbelief after being reunited with her cat after 7 years.

The cat was found only 1 mile away from home.

Kevin Durant went missing 7 years ago.

No, not the basketball star, but a Lynx Point Siamese Mix with blue, crossed eyes.

His owner Liz Gillespie says she never thought she would see his unique face again.

Durant was playing on the family porch when his owner thinks that one corner of the chicken wire came loose. He managed to get out.

For weeks she and her neighbors searched for the cat, even using drone footage. But they were unable to find him.

“I live next door to 30 acres and woods. And so I just kind of assumed that maybe a coyote had gotten him, and I really didn't think he was out there after so long. I kind of didn't have any hope left," Liz says.

That was in 2017.

Fast forward to 2024 when Kevin Durant and Liz were reunited.

So where was the all-star feline all these years?

Turns out, Durant did not stray far.

Gillespie says he was part of a cat colony and she believes someone was taking care of him because his ear was snipped, something that she did not do prior.

Walker County Animal Shelter says a couple of weeks ago, their Animal Services Division received a phone call from a resident that lives in the Rock Spring area about a child that had been bitten by a cat.

That cat turned out to be Kevin Durant.

Animal Services then set a trap to capture the cat and put him in quarantine.

Once the cat went to the vet, they discovered that he was neutered, and had an owner and a microchip.

Microchip company 24Petwatch then contacted Gillespie... and the rest is history.

“I don't know if you could tell. But yeah, he's got slightly crossed eyes. I just knew right away when I saw his eyes... that was my baby," Liz says.

The Walker County Animal shelter says that it is extremely rare for an animal to be reunited with their owner after this many years, and especially in such close proximity.

The shelter is stressing the importance of microchipping your pets.

“Without that microchip, this cat was looked at as being a community cat... that it was just kind of living on its own in the Rock Spring area. Nobody would have known that it actually had an owner, let alone one that had been looking for him for many, many years," saysJoe Legge - Walker County Government PR Director.

A 2009 Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association study found that "microchipped cats are returned to their owners 38.5% of the time, while cats without microchips are reunited just 1.8% of the time.”

The Walker County Animal Shelter does microchipping for a $10 fee.

They recommend that owners regularly update their microchip info, especially if they move.