Three years ago, 15-year-old Hannah Rountree was absolutely devastated when her cat Spunky ran away. The family was gone on vacation and the black and white kitty cat must have gotten scared and decided to run off. Sadly, despite weeks and months of searching and praying for his return, Spunky never came back.
Hannah was only 12-years-old at the time her cat ran away. It spurred a love of animals in the young girl and she began to spend her time volunteering at animal shelters.
Fast forward three years and this is when Hannah’s story takes a turn for the amazing.
Hannah recently started spending her time volunteering at Saving Grace Pet Adoption Center in Roseburg, Oregon. As she was showing up for just her second shift, she was expecting to spend the day playing with kittens and helping the shelter feed them and change their litter boxes. But what she didn’t know was that her entire day was going to change in the most amazing and serendipitous way.
When the 15-year-old walked into the shelter, there was a black and white cat that really caught her eye. There was something about this cat that was drawing her to him. The cat had just shown up to the shelter and was recently surrendered by a family that couldn’t take care of him. He was just getting used to his time at the shelter.
And even though lots of cats can look the same and have similar markings, there was something about this particular cat that reminded Hannah of Spunky.
“I was like, is that my cat? It literally looks so much like Spunky,” Hannah shared with a local news outlet in Oregon. “He was my first cat and the first thing I bonded with as a child, so it was really hard; I cried a lot.”
Hannah talked to some of the other staff members to hear about the cat’s story. And soon enough, it was determined that the black and white kitty was indeed Spunky! The teen couldn’t believe it.
Wendy Kang, Saving Grace director, explained that Spunky was initially brought to the shelter in September of 2019. At that time, he was a stray and the shelter named him Bear. Soon, Bear was adopted by a family but they didn’t end up wanting to keep him anymore. They were looking for a mouse hunter and Spunky (Bear) just wouldn’t do it, he was too sweet-natured. So – he was brought back to the shelter once again.
It was most certainly fate or destiny that brought these two back together again.
Thankfully, it was Spunky’s refusal to be a hunter that ended up bringing him back into Hannah’s arms that day. They had both shown up to the shelter around the same time.
“It’s just perfect that she was able to find her pet while helping us,” Kang said.
Of course, Hannah was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to tell her family that she had found Spunky. They welcomed the long-last cat back into their home without a second thought.
Once he was back in his rightful home, Spunky didn’t take long to settle right in.
Hannah loves that she has her family back together again. There had been something missing for those three years and she finally had it back.
“He’s very comfortable…I knew he would just perk up and remember,” Hannah boasted.
When the NBC news outlet asked the teen how it felt to have Spunky back home, she replied:
“It was just fate, I feel like.”
Congratulations to Hannah, Spunky, and their family. We love heartwarming reunion stories like these!
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