Last weekend, Hudson resident Britni Storm McCuiston reunited with an old friend – her cat, Castiel, who has been missing for three years.

It’s a “once-in-nine-lives” tale.

In mid-July, Castiel was found by animal control officers in Blount County, Tennessee, just south of Knoxville. Hovering on the brink of death, the cat was severely emaciated, dehydrated and anemic. A good portion of his tail had been ripped off, and he was covered in fleas and maggots.

Dr. Michelle Williams, staff veterinarian at Blount County Animal Center, knew euthanasia “would have been a justifiable medical call.”

But Williams discovered the 6-year-old tabby-Siamese mix had a microchip with his owner’s information – and a note that the cat had been reported as deceased three years ago. Not wanting to give up, or believe that Castiel was a zombie cat, Williams turned to the internet and became a detective.

“Given what I’d learned from the microchip data, I just had to find Castiel’s owner and let her know he was alive,” Williams said.

The microchip indicated the cat belonged to Britni Storm Hakala (McCuiston’s then-married name). It listed a Knoxville address and phone number that had been disconnected.

Williams knew the Knoxville address on the microchip data was likely a University of Tennessee student residence and, sure enough, she found Hakala’s name on a list of UT graduates from 2015, as well as some essays Hakala (nee McCuiston) had written in college. These led Williams to McCuiston’s Facebook page, where she confirmed that Castiel’s owner was a Tennessee native who had graduated from UT in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences. The Facebook page indicated McCuiston was now living in New Hampshire and working as an analytical bench scientist at Pfizer in Andover, Massachusetts.

Williams sent McCuiston a message via Facebook.

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How it all began

Back in 2016, McCuiston visited a Knoxville animal shelter because she wanted to adopt a cat. When a tabby-Siamese kitten climbed in her lap and head-butted her, she instantly fell in love.

“I brought him home with me,” McCuiston said. She renamed the friendly kitten Castiel, after an angel on one of her favorite TV shows, “Supernatural.”

McCuiston said Castiel became her special buddy, giving her invaluable love and support as she went through her divorce. Castiel and McCuiston’s other cat, Millicent, became best friends.

One day in 2018, not long before she moved to New Hampshire, Castiel jumped off McCuiston’s balcony and ran into some nearby woods. McCuiston searched for him but couldn’t find him. Three days later, she discovered a dead cat near the woods. It looked exactly like Castiel.

McCuiston moved to New Hampshire, assuming Castiel was dead. She busied herself settling into her new home. Weeks later, while in the process of getting a new cellular phone, she discovered a message from the Knoxville animal shelter. Someone had found her cat, very much alive, and brought him to the shelter as a stray.

However, by the time McCuiston called the shelter, Castiel had already been adopted by someone else.

McCuiston was happy Castiel was alive, but figured she’d still never see him again.

What happened between then and mid-July when Castiel was found lying on the side of a road, isn’t clear. If he’d had other owners, none of them had updated his microchip data. The veterinarian said Castiel’s injuries indicated he had been on the run for quite some time.

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New lease on life

McCuiston said she’s shocked – and overjoyed – that Castiel is alive and home.

She didn’t have to reimburse the Blount County Animal Center, a municipal shelter, or its nonprofit partner, the Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation, for Castiel’s medical care. Still, McCuiston wanted to give back to the agencies that saved her cat’s life.

She raised more than $800 on a GoFundMe page that detailed Castiel’s odyssey. She donated part of the money to the Blount County Animal Center for his medical care, which included a bone marrow biopsy, time in an oxygen cage to improve wound healing, various medications to treat anemia, infections and heartworms, ringworm and surgery to repair his tail. She’ll use the rest to pay for Castiel’s ongoing medical care.

Despite the trauma he endured, Williams said she expects Castiel to live a normal cat life, and she described him as “the sweetest cat ever.”

McCuiston has been thrilled to learn that Castiel responds to his name, still loves to head-butt, and still prefers salmon-flavored cat food – the kind with chunks, not pate.

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Happy reunion

With Castiel finally healthy enough to go home, McCuiston and Williams met last Saturday at a hotel in Pennsylvania, the midway point between their two homes.

Williams had kept Castiel at her house for the past two weeks to ensure he would remain healthy, and she decided to make the eight-hour drive to personally deliver Castiel to McCuiston.

“I’ve been caring for him so long, I feel a little possessive of him. I want to protect him to the very end and see this thing through,” Williams said.

In the hectic hotel lobby, Castiel bounded out of his carrier and wandered a bit, taking in the scene.

“I teared up when I saw him, and he meowed at me,” McCuiston said.

Getting reacquainted didn’t take long, and soon there were lots of smiles, some happy tears, and a few head butts. Castiel then snuggled up next to McCuiston in the car for the ride back to Hudson to meet up with his old buddy, Millicent, and get to know his three new feline friends, Blue Cheese, Lilith and Ruby Jo.

As McCuiston and Castiel headed home, Williams breathed a happy sigh of relief.

“It was well worth all the time and effort to get them reunited,” Williams said. “Castiel is going to have his best life now.”