Losing a pet is always heartbreaking, but it's crucial not to lose hope. We've heard numerous stories of pets being found months or even years after they disappeared. However, a recent story defies belief: a cat reunited with its owners a staggering 12 years after going missing! Angelo and Shelley Castellino were devastated when their cat, Butters, disappeared from their San Diego home in 2011. "Butters was quite adventurous and loved going outside.

He had figured out how to use the dog door," Angelo shared with ABC 7. "Then one day, he just didn't come back." As time passed without any sign of Butters, they feared the worst, thinking a coyote might have taken him. Years went by, and they eventually resigned themselves to the idea that he was gone for good. Fast forward 12 years.

On October 1, Riverside County Animal Control Officer Dalton Churchwell spotted a cat in his yard in Blythe, California, according to an RCDAS press release. He managed to catch the cat and scanned it for a microchip. To everyone's astonishment, the cat had an owner—and had been missing since 2011. It was Butters, still alive and well after all these years.

Dalton contacted the family, who truly couldn’t believe it. “At first, we didn’t pick it up because we thought it was one of these scam calls, but when they called back again, my wife picked up,” Angelo told ABC 7. “He told her they had Butters.”

“I thought it was a prank call because the cat was gone for 12 years, but how did he know our cat’s name?”

But soon, it dawned on them that they weren’t being pranked, and instead had gotten a miracle. “It was just unbelievable,” Angelo said in the press release. “I’m so grateful to Officer Churchwell to have Butters identified. The officer just really went out of his way. You know, he did this on a Sunday night, on his time off.”

The Castellinos were thrilled to be getting their long-lost cat back, but there was one hurdle: in the 12 years since Butters went missing, they relocated to Washington state, far from where the cat was found.

But thankfully, nonprofit organization The ASK Foundation offered to fund a flight to Seattle so Butters could reunite with his family. Longtime RCDAS volunteer Larry Rudolph took the flight with the cat and delivered him to the Castellinos,

“We were thrilled to work with the Department of Animal Services to make this reunion possible,” said ASK Foundation president Carolyn Badger. “It was such a wonderful story and we are very happy to know that Butters is home and safe with his family.”

The story is truly miraculous: Larry Rudolph told ABC 7 that it was “meant to be” that Butters happened to cross paths with a shelter employee: “You’re talking about the area of Blythe, where it’s in the desert, where we have only two employees out there, and the cat decided to jump in his backyard.”

The family says it’s a reminder to always get your pets microchipped, which makes reunions like this possible even more than a decade later. “Our prodigal kitty has come home,” Shelley Castellino said. “I cannot stress enough how important it is to get your kitty cats and your doggies chipped.”

It’s not clear what Butters has been up to all these years, but the important thing is that he’s finally home, reunited with his family and cat brother Barnacles.