"She's a feisty kitty but as soon as she saw him, you could see she was happy, she was relaxed, she was purring," the shelter said.
It was an emotional reunion when a California man's 20-year-old blind and deaf cat was returned to him after she was lost on the opposite side of the country for nearly two months.
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“She’s a feisty kitty but as soon as she saw him, you could see she was happy, she was relaxed, she was purring,” Kathy Bieniek of Saving Sage Animal Rescue in Miami told InsideEdition.com. "It’s like she was waiting for him."
In a video posted to YouTube, Raymond McNamara could be seen sobbing as he’s petting his cat, Lily, for the first time in two months.
“He loves his cat more than anything,” Bieniek said. “She is his life. He lives for that cat."
McNamara had been traveling around the country with his cat Lily when they ended up taking a stroll on a Fort Lauderdale Beach.
“Lily followed him like a puppy dog wherever he went,” Bieniek explained. “Whenever she wandered off, she always comes back, but when he turned his head, he couldn’t find her.”
The man contacted authorities and local police and animal rescues soon had a search team looking for Lily.
When the search team eventually gave up due to poor weather, McNamara left Florida for California, believing he would never see his beloved cat again.
“He was devastated,” she said.
Two months later, Bieniek said she received a message that another local shelter had found Lily.
“She was in the exact same spot where she was lost,” she explained. “She did not move from the spot. She was waiting for her daddy to get her.”
But, the 20-year-old cat was in poor condition, she explained. In addition to her long fur being matted, her kidneys were also in decline and several other medical issues. Bieniek said she didn’t think Lily would have survived much longer had she stayed in the wild.
For weeks, Lily was treated with IV fluids and medications as she waited for McNamara to pick her up.
When he finally arrived to the Miami shelter last Friday, Bieniek explained the sick cat’s demeanor completely changed.
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“She’s not a lap cat, but she was finally able to relax,” she explained. “All that stress went away. All her worries were lifted off. It was very sweet to see.”
To donate to the care of animals like Lily, visit Saving Sage Rescue's website or PayPal link.
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