Stray Cat in Oklahoma Stumps Rescuers After Feline's Microchip Reveals Pet Is Originally from a Country 4,000 Miles Away

Sand Springs Animal Welfare recently picked up a stray cat wandering around Oklahoma, a routine procedure for the rescue. Things stopped being routine and started getting mysterious when the rescue checked the feline for a microchip.

A microchip is a small identification chip loaded with a pet owner's contact information that is painlessly implanted in a cat or dog. When a pet is separated from its owner, a microchip can make reunification much easier for whoever finds the animal next.

Sand Springs scanned the new stray for a microchip and found one. When they looked up the contact information associated with the microchip, the rescue discovered it was registered to someone in the U.K., over 4,000 miles from Oklahoma. The find left everyone asking, how did this cat cross an ocean and a large portion of the U.S. and end up in the Sooner State?

Tracy Anderson, the animal welfare coordinator at the shelter, became involved in solving the mystery surrounding the feline, who Sand Springs affectionately named Samson.

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"He was in really good condition, so we weren't sure what was going on," she told KOKI. "But we scanned him, and he had a microchip, so we looked up the microchip company and called them. And they said it's registered in the U.K."

Sand Springs contacted a dog warden in the U.K. for help searching for Samson's owner, and the warden found a promising lead: contact information for Samson's supposed owner. MSN reported that the shelter contacted the woman connected to Samson's microchip, but she said her cat wasn't missing and was, in fact, sitting right next to her.

Anderson told KOKI that she believes "something happened" when Samson got microchipped, and his contact information "probably got switched" with another feline's. Sand Springs has tried tracking down other microchips and contact information that could be associated with Samson but hasn't had any luck finding his owner.

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Sand Springs plans to keep Searching for the feline's pet parent but is prepared to adopt the cat out to a new home if answers remain elusive.

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"Somebody loved this cat and put the money into getting him over here but it’s just hard to tell what happened to them," Anderson said. "Maybe they passed away or something, and it’s just really hard to tell. But he’s with us, and he’ll get a good home either way."

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