• American family reunited with their missing cat after 10 years
• Cat’s microchip helped the shelter identify and return her

A family in New Jersey managed to recover their cat ten years after it went missing when it escaped from their home.

The Montclair Township Animal Shelter in New Jersey announced in a Facebook post that a Good Samaritan had recently brought in a stray cat to the shelter.

The shelter added, “Of course, the first thing we do is scan for a microchip.”

The scan immediately identified the cat as belonging to Sean Haberle, a current resident of northern New York, who was living in Montclair when the cat, named Asa, disappeared.

The shelter wrote: “Bingo! Microchip registered! And the family still had the same phone number.”

Haberle had adopted Asa as a kitten ten years earlier, but she went missing after slipping through an open window and climbing into a rain gutter. His attempt to rescue her failed when a ladder collapsed, causing him to fall while the cat ran off.

Haberle told WABC-TV: “I found her and tried to save her on a rickety ladder. Suddenly, the ladder gave way, I went down, and the cat took off.”

The family conducted an extensive search, posting flyers, checking with animal shelters and veterinarians, walking the neighborhood daily, and keeping Asa’s microchip information updated even after they later moved to the Finger Lakes region of New York.

Haberle added: “We always hoped we’d see her somewhere. We looked everywhere, and eventually, she just never showed up.”

After ten years, during a conversation with his middle son, Haberle said: “I wondered what happened to that cat. She was such a sweet cat.”

The shelter explained that discovering the microchip allowed them to deliver news they rarely get to share, writing: “We made the call every shelter dreams of making.”

Asa underwent a full-body scan to confirm the microchip match and cooperated during the process, according to shelter staff.