After five years without her cat, Nguhi Muturi never expected to see him again, but the story of how the pet came back into her life stunned her and just about everybody else who heard it.
Nguhi, 23, got a kitten when she was nine years old in Dallas, Texas, and named it Panther. Panther lived with Nguhi until she left for college, at which point the feline disappeared.
“I loved him to pieces and used to write about him for every daily journal entry in school,” Nguhi told the Press Association. “We adopted him when he was a kitten months after we moved into this home.
“He slipped out of the house and never came back.”
Except he did come back, it just happened a whole five years later.
hi I can’t believe this is real because I am still in shock but my first pet ever my cat panther just came home today after going missing FIVE YEARS AGO. FIVE. YEARS. AGO.
— nguhi (@ngvhi) March 16, 2018
Nguhi told the story on Twitter to the amazement of thousands, but there was so much more to the story than a simple reappearance.
alright saddle in bc this is a JOURNEY. sometime after panther went missing he apparently turned up in a shelter in the next city 15 mi away. days before he was going to be euthanized he was adopted ! and lived with a women for a little while in yet another city.
— nguhi (@ngvhi) March 17, 2018
she saved his life and named him Charlie! She had him for a little while and when she couldn’t look after him anymore she gave him to her parents. this woman’s parents happen to be…..my next door neighbors. They have been living with “”Charlie”” for a little over a year
— nguhi (@ngvhi) March 17, 2018
he was an indoor cat we hardly saw and at this point we’d presumed panther lost or dead. These happen to be the neighbors that bought a siberian husky that quickly turned out to be too much to handle. i started taking care of him until they asked if I wanted to fully adopt him
— nguhi (@ngvhi) March 17, 2018
of course I said yes which is why last year I adopted my beautiful baby boy trotsky. ALL WHILE UNBEKNOWNST TO ME MY LONG LOST CAT PANTHER WAS LIVING INDOORS. I took their dog and they took my cat. pic.twitter.com/LkkAYKb5Hi
— nguhi (@ngvhi) March 17, 2018
THIS IS WHY when trotsky saw panther at our house today he didn’t go crazy or bark. HE ALREADY KNEW HIM. THEY’D LIVED TOGETHER BEFORE. we discovered this after our neighbor called and asked if we’d seen Charlie who’d been missing all day
— nguhi (@ngvhi) March 17, 2018
Our neighbors were as flabbergasted as us and insisted we keep him because he really was ours. we (I was overruled) decided to give him back since he was comfortable there and we already have a dog and cat. It was heartbreaking but I can’t even be sad bc today was truly surreal
— nguhi (@ngvhi) March 17, 2018
Sensational. Panther’s journey took him to a shelter where he was picked up by a woman, who later gave the cat to her parents, who it turns out were Nguhi’s next-door neighbours.
While next door, he apparently became buddies with Trotsky the dog, now owned by Nguhi, which is a spin-off film surely everybody wants to see.
And the best part? While Panther will continue to live next door, Nguhi gets to go and visit him as she pleases, although she may have to call him Charlie from now on.
they’ve given me permission to visit my beautiful boy whenever I’d like. How is it possible that they gave me this dog I adore and have fostered my first best friend.
— nguhi (@ngvhi) March 17, 2018
“They are amazing people,” said Nguhi of her neighbours. “I hope they don’t get annoyed with me coming too often, but now that I know he’s close by I’m not losing him again!”
you know how you lose a person or pet and you wish you had one more day with them just to let them know how much you love them and how much they mean to you? I just had that day with Panther. I never would have guessed that 5 years later I’d get to kiss his little head again ❤️ pic.twitter.com/KQyEQ67QFy
— nguhi (@ngvhi) March 17, 2018
A fairy-tale ending and a story that wouldn’t look out of place on the silver screen.
