For a ginger cat named Oliver, distance meant nothing when it came to love. He traveled 40 miles just to be with his favorite little boy again after he got lost during the family’s move.
The Kutscher family had to make the unbelievably difficult decision to leave Oliver behind. He disappeared right before they moved from Bridgeport, West Virginia to Morgantown.
The last time mom Halie Kutscher saw Oliver was after the family dog had chased him up into a tree when they were filling up their U-Haul. She closed the U-Haul and didn’t see him after that.
Where’s Oliver?
Luckily, the family hadn’t sold their old home yet. So, they would return every weekend to see if they could find Oliver. They left food out for him and would call out to him.
Still, they had no luck. The family’s 9-year-old son was devastated and would cry while holding an orange cat Beanie Baby wishing it was Oliver.
The Kutchers eventually sold their old house and asked the new owners to keep an eye out for Oliver. After that, they started to grow doubtful that they would ever see Oliver again.
Kutscher said she and her husband decided they would have to have a talk with their son and tell him that Oliver might not be found. But instead of finding Oliver, Oliver found his family.
“My husband looks over the railing. In our neighbor’s yard, there’s little steps that kind of go up, and there’s an orange cat sitting on it. He said, ‘Oh my god, that looks like Oliver,’” Kutscher told News 10 ABC. “I run in the house, run to the basement, run out the back door, down into the grass. He sees me coming, and he starts running to me. We’re running to each other like a slow-motion-movie scene.”
Home again
This was about two months after they first moved. Though the family couldn’t have been happier, they were in complete shock. Oliver may have traveled about 40 miles to find them.
“He was just staring up at us,” Kutscher told The Dodo. “I scooped him right up in my arms … as soon as we got inside, I dropped to my knees and just held him sobbing. He stayed right there with me as the rest of the family and pets gathered around him.”
They even took Oliver to the vet to have his microchip scanned. The scan confirmed that the orange cat was, in fact, Oliver.
“He wasn’t scared or timid or anything,” Kutscher said. “He just looked content and happy to be home, and tired.”
Not only was their son happy to have Oliver home, but so were the family’s other pets! Now the Kutchers are back to being one big happy family.