Kit Kat is actually named Crookshaw and had been missing from his Colorado home since May 2019.

The male tuxedo cat and his owners from Northglenn, Colorado, were reunited Wednesday afternoon after the cat’s identity was discovered when his microchip was scanned at Tender Hearts Veterinary Center in North Platte.

The story’s happy ending came as Kit Kat — or Crookshaw — appeared to be headed to a new home once again.

The cat’s journey to Nebraska and back to Colorado began when he wandered away from his Northglenn home.

He wandered into a woman’s yard, and she assumed the cat was a stray and took him in. She moved from Colorado to North Platte soon afterward.

A year and a half later, the woman is moving again, within the city, to a place that restricts the number of pets allowed. She reached out for help to Sami Erickson, who operates the trap/neuter/return program for feral cats with Linda Lund.

Erickson planned to deliver the cat to a rescue that TNR works with, but first she took it to Tender Hearts at 8 a.m. Wednesday to get him vetted.

That’s when the cat’s microchip and identity were discovered, and the owners were contacted. They were in North Platte hours later.

“You are not going to believe this,” Erickson told the North Platte woman in a phone call.

Erickson said the woman was stunned and excited by the news; her concern had been that Kit Kat would go to a good home. At the same time she felt almost as though she had stolen the cat.

“She didn’t know at the time that you could take (the cat) in to get it scanned for a microchip,” Erickson said. “She just thought it was a stray and gave it a home.

“(The Colorado owners) were so excited, and I’m sure he was as well to be reunited with his owners. He was such a cool cat, almost like a dog. He would follow this lady around and down the street for a walk.”

Erickson said it’s the second time within the past year that TNR has been able to return an apparently stray cat to its owner.

She said a woman called the program last spring about a Siamese cat that was running loose in the county.

TNR trapped the cat and took it to Tender Hearts. It turned out the cat had been missing from a North Platte home for about a year and a half.

“I don’t think people realize how extremely important it is to have their animals microchipped,” Erickson said. “That way the animal always has (the owner’s) information on them. Had (the tuxedo cat) not had that microchip on, it would’ve never, ever been reunited with its owners.”

PETS GONE WILD OF NEBRASKA