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Family drove seven hours to Florida to reunite with their cat, Dodger
Amber Raiken in New York Saturday 11 April 2026 21:49 BST- Bookmark
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A family has reunited with their beloved cat seven years after he went missing in California.
Amber Davidson and her kids adopted their pet cat, Dodger, in 2016 from the Miss Winkles Pet Adoption Center in Clovis, California, according to local news outlet Your Central Valley.
But when preparing for a cross-country move in 2018, Dodger disappeared.
Davidson planned her family’s move to Florida after the father of her children died. Of course, Dodger was supposed to be moving too, with Davidson having planned for a friend to transport the cat, along with the family’s belongings, to Florida.
Dodger never made the move and has been missing ever since — but that all changed when Davidson recently got an unexpected email.
Amber Davidson and her family were reunited with their cat after he went missing in 2018 (stock) (Getty Images)“It was like 11 p.m., and I get this email saying Dodger has been scanned into Fresno TNR,” she told Your Central Valley, referring to Trap-Neuter-Return, a non-profit organization focused on reducing the number of free-roaming cats in Fresno, California.
Sydney Sherman, who works at Fresno TNR, told the publication that Dodger was found in Madera, California, and brought in for neutering. However, veterinarians realized he’d already been neutered and had a microchip. Once Sherman scanned the chip, she learned that the cat belonged to a family that no longer lived in California.
“I was like, oh my gosh, where do these people live, this isn’t a 559 area code,” she said, before learning that Davidson and her family now live 2,500 miles away in Georgia.
The pair began making plans to reunite Dodger and his family, with Sherman telling Davidson that she was going to be in Florida in March.
“I was like, well, I’m going to a wedding in Florida on March 24, I can try to bring him to you guys if you can meet me in Florida,” Sherman said. The reunion plans were then set in place, with Davidson and her family driving seven hours to Florida to see Dodger for the first time in seven years.
“That moment, of ‘He’s finally home, he gets to be with his people again,” Sherman said. “It’s very special.”
“When we were walking away, Schylar was like, ‘Mom, you did so good, you didn’t cry,’” Davidson added, referring to her son.
This isn’t the first time that a pet has made headlines for traveling across state lines to reunite with loved ones. In October, beloved calico cat Francine returned to her home in a Richmond, Virginia, Lowe’s store after she was missing for a month.
Francine, formerly a stray, was discovered at a company distribution center in Garysburg, North Carolina, having hitched a ride on a truck. Two Richmond Lowe's employees made a 90-minute drive to retrieve her. She was back on duty the following day, playing with customers, posing for photos and enjoying affection.
Before she went missing, Francine spent much of her time either at the customer service desk or in the store's seasonal area.
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