Roseburg teen reunited with lost childhood cat

ROSEBURG, Ore (KMTR) – An Oregon teenager volunteering at an animal shelter got the surprise of a lifetime after she found her childhood cat who’d been missing for years.

It was on her second day volunteering at Saving Grace Pet Adoption Center in Roseburg that 15-year-old Hannah Rountree saw a familiar face in the “catio.”

“I pulled up and I was like, ‘Is that my cat? It literally looks so much like spunky,’” she said.

Spunky, Hannah’s childhood cat, ran away while his family was on a trip over three years ago.

“He was my first cat and the first thing I bonded with as a child,” Hannah explained. “So it was just really hard and I cried a lot.”

Hannah and her family spent months looking for spunky. She said, “That’s when I was kind of like, ‘I think maybe he passed away or someone took him far away.'”

So it was certainly a surprise to see her old friend so many years later. “That’s how I got him, it was just fate I feel like.”

Wendy Kang, director of Saving Grace, said spunky was brought into the shelter in early September. “He came in as stray who had been found off the side of the highway in Winchester.”

Spunky was renamed “Bear” and put up for adoption. “He quickly became a favorite,” Wendy said.

A couple took him home a few weeks later but brought him back because he didn’t want to catch mice. And, so, there he was — waiting for his original owner to stumble upon him.

Wendy said, “I just think that’s perfect that she is able to find the pet that she was separated from here when she came to help.”

And Hannah said he’s already adjusted to life back home. “Very comfortable,” she said. “I knew that he would just perk up and remember.”

It’s a happy tale of two childhood friends reunited.

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