Safely Home: Where is my KatKat?

I rescued my cat KatKat when he was about 3 weeks old wandering the streets alone. I bottle fed him and he was like my baby. He’s always been an inside cat in the 3 years I’ve had him he has also had a collar with his name tag. One day about 2 months ago I took his collar off because it was twisted and I thought I would get him a new, better one. His collar was off for a few days and in one of those few days he went outside, he had been outside before but never went off the front porch. When I found out he’d been let outside I went to get him and I couldn’t find him. I searched and searched everywhere.

A little over 2 months goes by and I’m ready to give up hope, he’s not coming home, he didn’t have a collar and he was scared. Well I got a call one day from and unknown number and I ignored it and when I went and looked at the voice mail it was a message from an animal shelter saying they might have him and they read me his PetLink chip Id number. I called the number back and the shelter was one that was about 45-50 miles away! We rushed over, it took us an hour- and when I got there I could hardly believe I was looking at him. He was so skinny and weak looking. And when he disappeared he was pretty chunky. He’s home now and is doing much better and I am so grateful for his microchip because if it hadn’t been for the chip I never would’ve been reunited with my Katkat!