Cookie the cat disappeared in March 2013 from the southern French town of Grasse. Owner Dan Bouchery had brought Cookie with her for a three-month hotel stay, but the cat disappeared when she left him briefly in the courtyard.
“I thought someone had stolen him,” Bouchery said.
She says she tried desperately to find Cookie, posting fliers and even putting an ad in the local newspaper Nice Matin, but eventually gave up and returned to her home in Calvados, in the north of France.
Then, nearly a year and a half later, Bouchery got a phone call.
A veterinarian in the nearby town of Orbec said a woman had brought the cat in. He was dirty, emaciated and a bit worse for wear, but it was him -- the vet identified Cookie by his microchip.
Somehow, between March 2013 and August 2014, Cookie traveled around 1,116 km (693 miles).
Bouchery received the call in August, but didn't get Cookie back immediately.
“[The woman who found him] wanted to keep him, but the police asked her to return him and finally I got him back on Oct. 14,” Bouchery told Nice Matin.
So how did a cat make it 700 miles across France?
“I think he was directed by the stars, walking at night and sleeping during the day," Bouchery said. "He is an extraordinary cat. I am dazzled by and admire what he did."
Dans #AVPV, on revient sur les #NMA la cérémonie qui récompense chaque année M. Pokora et les artistes absents http://t.co/10jOqrwX13— Nice-Matin (@Nice_Matin) December 19, 2014
Bouchery is now considering writing a children's book about Cookie.