The tireless work of an animal shelter worker has reunited a cat with its owner in upstate New York after 11 years apart, the New York Post has reported.

It took three years for Carol O'Connell, a Dutchess County SPCA employee, to win the trust of a stray cat that had been living near her home.

Then, on the off chance that it'd had a previous owner, she took the cat to the vet to have it scanned for a microchip, and amazingly, there was one!

The charity recounted the incident on their Facebook page, writing: "DCSPCA staff member Carol O'Connell did an amazing thing! It took her three years to get close enough to pet the stray cat that had been coming by her home every now and then. On a whim, she borrowed a scanner from the shelter and discovered the cat was micro-chipped."

"With information from the chip, we were able to locate the owner, and discovered the cat had been missing for 11 years!" the SPCA said.

The cat, named Tiger, has now been reunited with his owner, Maggie, who hasn't seen him since he was three years old.

"Yesterday Tiger had a reunion with his mom Maggie, after getting checked out by DCSPCA clinic director Dr. Crum," the post concluded. "He was in remarkably good shape for having been on the streets that long, and today he is back with his family whom he had not seen since he was 3 years old!"

Clearly, even after so many years apart, Tiger hadn't forgotten Maggie, and the charity posted a heartwarming picture of him nuzzling into her neck for the first time in eight years.

But if you thought this hug was heartwarming, what was even more heartwarming was the embrace this stray gave to its rescuer who saved him from euthanasia.

The tireless work of an animal shelter worker has reunited a cat with its owner in upstate New York after 11 years apart, the New York Post has reported.

It took three years for Carol O'Connell, a Dutchess County SPCA employee, to win the trust of a stray cat that had been living near her home.

Then, on the off chance that it'd had a previous owner, she took the cat to the vet to have it scanned for a microchip, and amazingly, there was one!

The charity recounted the incident on their Facebook page, writing: "DCSPCA staff member Carol O'Connell did an amazing thing! It took her three years to get close enough to pet the stray cat that had been coming by her home every now and then. On a whim, she borrowed a scanner from the shelter and discovered the cat was micro-chipped."

"With information from the chip, we were able to locate the owner, and discovered the cat had been missing for 11 years!" the SPCA said.

The cat, named Tiger, has now been reunited with his owner, Maggie, who hasn't seen him since he was three years old.

"Yesterday Tiger had a reunion with his mom Maggie, after getting checked out by DCSPCA clinic director Dr. Crum," the post concluded. "He was in remarkably good shape for having been on the streets that long, and today he is back with his family whom he had not seen since he was 3 years old!"

Clearly, even after so many years apart, Tiger hadn't forgotten Maggie, and the charity posted a heartwarming picture of him nuzzling into her neck for the first time in eight years.

But if you thought this hug was heartwarming, what was even more heartwarming was the embrace this stray gave to its rescuer who saved him from euthanasia.