Missing cat named Kevin Durant is found after 7 years. See joyful reunion with owner

A missing cat named Kevin Durant was found seven years later — then came a joyful reunion with his owner, a photo and video show.

It turns out, the lost feline didn’t roam too far from his home. He was found about a mile away living in a “cat colony,” the North Georgia Animal Alliance wrote March 3 in a Facebook post.

Liz Gillespie, the cat’s owner, told WTVC she got the good news and couldn’t believe her luck.

“He’s got slightly crossed eyes,” Gillespie told the TV station. “I just knew right away when I saw his eyes ... that was my baby.”

In social media posts, a Facebook user believed to be Gillespie wrote that Kevin Durant was named after the professional basketball star of the same name now with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. He “knew tricks, walked on a harness and went for car rides.”

Then one day in 2017, the beloved pet was playing on a porch and got loose. Gillespie, who lives in the Rock Spring area, searched for weeks but eventually started to lose hope that he would be found safe, according to WTVC.

Years later, the Walker County Animal Shelter picked up a feline that had been living in the “cat colony.” The shelter reportedly scanned the animal for a microchip, a device that helped to find his owner and identify him as Kevin Durant.

Gillespie on Facebook said her cat was “filthy” but otherwise OK. A photo and video captured the emotional moments when she finally embraced her cat after several years apart.

“My guilt from absorbing that he’s been so close and outside this whole time is overwhelming,” she wrote. “I’m so glad I get to have more time with him though.”

Kevin Durant, now 12 years old and accustomed to living outside, is expected to take some time to re-adjust to indoor life. But the animal alliance said he “can relax and retire properly now that he is a senior fellow.”

The Rock Spring area is in northwest Georgia, a roughly 20-mile drive south from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The Facebook user and the Walker County Animal Shelter didn’t immediately share additional information with McClatchy News on March 14.

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