Dopey, a long-eared, droopy-eyed orange tabby that was missing six years from his south Sacramento home, has been reunited with his family.
He's a little heavier but remains the same lovable Dopey owner Donna Lane-Mills remembered.
"I was shocked when they told me he was found," said Lane-Mills.
The long-lost feline apparently lived for awhile in Rancho Cordova where he was cared for by a woman who later gave him to her grandmother in Yolo County. When her grandmother died, Dopey was turned into the Yolo County Animal Shelter in Woodland.
There, the shelter staff discovered an American Kennel Club (AKC) Companion Animal Recovery chip that Lane-Mills had her veterinarian implant under Dopey's skin several years before. Cats had been disappearing from her neighborhood, Lane-Mills said, and she wanted to take the precaution.
When Dopey turned up missing, the family posted fliers around the neighborhood, called vets and searched shelters, but didn't hear a meow from Dopey until Wednesday, when the American Kennel Club called.
The AKC left a voice-mail message at Lane-Mills' home, informing her Dopey had been found in the Yolo shelter.
"Dopey?" she thought. She listened to the message again, sure, as was the rest of her family, that Dopey already had used up his nine lives.
"He was a favorite of my youngest daughter who was just 6 years old at the time of his disappearance," Lane-Mills said. "She was crying herself to sleep at night saying, "I miss my Dopey.' We thought he had been hit by a car."
Figuring there was a mix-up, Lane-Mills called the Yolo shelter and asked an employee to describe the cat. The shelter perfectly described Dopey, so named because of his unorthodox features.
"He has a distinctive face," said Lane-Mills.
She went to the shelter that day, and workers said Dopey, being 9 years old, probably never would have been adopted because of his age, Lane-Mills said.
She was more than happy to bring the cat home.
When Lane-Mills first saw Dopey, he sat up, she began petting him and he purred.
"He's a little chubbier," she said. "The kids named him Dopey because of his silly look. He settled right in at home. He's in the spare room for now. He sits in a window and sleeps on a spare bed."
He's becoming reacquainted with his old friends: Spencer, the 17-year-old American Staffordshire-terrier mix and Inni, a 15-year-old cat. Even Dopey's stand-offish mother, Fluffy, is still around.
The family is glad Dopey is home, and Lane-Mills said she is happy she had the chip implanted.
The non-profit AKC has a one-time lifetime enrollment fee for its pet recovery service. For more information, call (800) 252-7894 or view www.akccar.org.
Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.
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