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2 years later, runaway cat returns home for Christmas

WORMLEYSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – A Pennsylvania family is reunited this Christmas – not sure they’d ever get the chance again – all because a furry friend made the long haul to be there.

The furry friend is named “Finick,” a long-haired black cat named for his finicky nature.

“He’s one of the best cats ever,” owner Sara Arndt said. “He’s just really snuggly and cute.”

But two Christmases ago, his name proved to be true. On a pit stop from South Carolina, where Sara now lives, to the Arndt’s home in Wormleysburg, Finick ran away.

“I spent two days looking like a crazy person up and down the streets, sobbing,” Arndt said.

For two years, there was no Finick, but Arndt kept him on her mind and her iPad background.

“We all say, ‘He’s fine, I’m sure he found a nice little woman to look after him,’” she said, “but you never really expect those things to be true.”

Turns out, it was.

“About a year ago, this big fluffy black cat used to run in and get real scared and run off,” Diane Lewis of North Carolina told us over the phone.

It was Finick, just a block from where Sara lost him. Lewis began to call him Bailey.

“He would start loving up to me once he got over the fear,” said Bailey, who took care of him for a year. “He was just a sweetheart, so I brought him in the house.”

Eventually, Finick became comfortable enough with her, and she was able to pick him up and take him to the vet.

“On Tuesday, I got a Facebook message from a veterinary in North Carolina,” Arndt said, “and she said we found a cat that was microchipped and it had your name.”

Arndt and her sister drove seven hours up and back to get Finick.

“It was him,” she said. “As soon as I picked him up, he started purring.”

He’s still getting used to a warm home again, which the family says is even warmer with Finick back.

“It’s a Christmas miracle,” Arndt said.