HUNTINGTON, WV (WOWK) — A miraculous reunion recently happened between a pet and its owners after being lost for weeks.
Fifty-six days ago, a rest stop off of Exit 10 on Interstate 64 was the last place Zach and Holly Tobin saw their beloved cat, “Luna.”
They had been moving back to the U.S. after living abroad in London, and were making the trip from St. Louis to Washington D.C.
“It’s almost exactly halfway, Huntington, from St. Louis to D.C. and he got out at the rest stop,” Zach Tobin said.
Suddenly, Luna was gone.
Holly Tobin remembers the harrowing moments after.
“The first thing we did after he got out after utter panic ensued, was trying to reach out to the local vets … and the receptionist actually told us about a couple Facebook groups. And so she posted a couple things on Facebook,” Tobin said.
Then, after weeks of silence: a sighting.
“Well that was last night and I think I’m still in shock,” Teresa Atkins, a local cat rescuer, said.
Teresa Atkins was a part of one of those Facebook groups.
She knew she had a duty to find Luna, since his owners could not stay.
“I understand they had to get back, they couldn’t stay here, but we were local and we would try our best and we would do everything we could, I mean, there were a few times we lost a little bit of hope. Because there wasn’t any sightings and then we got a call Sunday that he was sighted,” Atkins said.
So Atkins’ group set traps, and when she went back to check them Tuesday, there he was.
“He was just laying on the hillside like nobodies business,” Atkins said.
Wednesday afternoon saw the reunion after weeks of anxious waiting as the Tobins returned to West Virginia to pick Luna up.
When asked how they felt about finally being reunited with Luna through the help of the local community, Holly had this to say:
“If you ever lose faith in humanity … lose an animal and have people show you how good they are.”
Zach and Holly Tobin say, without the local community pitching in, they would have never expected to see him again.