The cat, missing since 2016 in Salon-de-Provence, was found by chance by its owners in a shelter in the city, while they were looking to adopt a new animal.

The Figaro Marseille

Julie didn’t believe it anymore. In 2016, while she was living with her children in Salon-de-Provence, in the Bouches-du-Rhône, their cat Yoda suddenly disappeared. “We looked everywhere for him. We moved heaven and earth. In vain. It lasted a year like that before we came to terms with our loss.”testifies Julie, quoted in a press release from the 30 million friends foundation which revealed the affair.

The family moved to the Côte d’Azur, before returning to Salon-de-Provence eight years later. Julie then decided to adopt a new cat, and looked on the website of the local shelter. And there, the mother of the family made an unexpected discovery. On the internet, she formally identified Yoda. “He had the same little mark on his mouth.”Julie explains to 30 million friends.

Taken into a nursing home

The whole family went to the shelter to find out for sure. And the identification confirmed the unthinkable. The cat spotted by Julie was indeed hers, who had disappeared eight years earlier. According to the press release, he had been rescued by the shelter volunteers a year earlier, when he had taken up residence in a nursing home.

Why did he leave? What did he experience for eight years? When he was taken in by the volunteers, the animal, now 17 years old, was in a very thin state. He was in fact fed by people from the establishment, until they were no longer there, according to Julie, leaving the cat idle, with damaged teeth and a broken tail. A bad memory now for the animal. After nearly a decade without his owners, Yoda has found his home “as if he had never left”according to Julie. “He immediately recognized the children”she reports.