Missing cat in Yellowstone National Park returns home after travelling 800 miles in three months

A family in California were delighted when their cat made a surprise return home three months after it went missing in Yellowstone National Park three months ago.

Benny and Susanne Anguiano, the owners of cat Rayne Beau (pronounced Rainbow), visited the national park on a family trip back in June, but ended up spending the entirety trying to find their lost cat when he went on his own venture.

The pair doused themselves in bear repellent and searched the woods for their pet but had no luck. They even took the cat's twin sister Starr Jasmine to try and call for the lost cat and draw it out of the woods.

"Even as we were driving out, I had my window down. I'm still calling him and we're still scanning the road. It was pretty traumatic," Susanne told USA TODAY.

Two months after the trip, the pair received a call from an animal shelter in Roseville telling them they had found Rayne Beau and he was ready to be picked up.

The pair were initially sceptical that it was a scam and asked the shelter to send a photograph as confirmation.

"I said, 'take a picture. I want to make sure I don't drive three-and-a-half hours and it's not my cat,'" Benny recalled. "So they did. About 20 minutes later, they sent a picture and yep, it was him."

It's unclear how the cat made his way from Wyoming to California, but his weight loss was evidence it wasn't easy.

Susanne said he was down to between seven and eight pounds, with vet results showing a lack of protein. His paws were all dry and cracked.

"Poor thing looked like he was six months old, nine months old. He was really little, all skin and bones. He had lost half his body weight," Benny told the publication. "He was in starvation mode. So now he's worked himself out of that."

Now Rayne Beau is back at home, he's sleeping and playing well with the family's other pet cats.

Susanne used this experience to urge pet owners to get their pets microchipped.

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