Home is where the heart is, and sometimes your heart is with your family. But for Chestnut, it took her nine long years to return home to her family.

According to the June 23, 2017, issue of Your TIMES, Cef and Debra Saurez were traveling on Interstate-40 in their motorhome when a tire blew out, causing them to crash on I-40. Debra received injuries while her husband was unscathed.

The couple also had two cats in the motorhome with them while traveling, Chestnut and Peaches. Chestnut, a Siamese, was seen escaping the vehicle through a broken windshield by EMS who responded to the scene, while Peaches, a yellow tabby, reportedly flew over the driver’s shoulder and out the window.

For a long time, people like Cheryl Melton from the Forever Friends Humane Society looked for the two cats. Even having scent dogs search for them, using their beds for scent.

And somehow, Chestnut persevered after the crash, trekking about three miles to a nearby housing addition in Sallisaw, Leisure Hills, where neighbors began feeding and taking care of the seemingly stray cat over the next four years.

Steve and Christie Ellis, residents of Leisure Hills, said they reached out to Melton after deciding to have the cat checked for a microchip. It was then that Melton discovered that Chestnut belonged to the Saurez’s.

“When we found out, I was shaking, Christie was crying, and Steve couldn’t believe that after all these years that we found her,” Melton said.

Melton said after telling the couple Chestnut had been found, Debra cried while Cef was in disbelief. The couple had just moved to Michigan from Florida when they received the news.

“I know that they’d done a lot of driving, so I offered to drive all the way to Harbor Springs, Mich., to meet them,” Melton said.

Thankfully, Debra was able to meet Christie with the cat in Joliet, Ill.

Melton said the one thing that she’d like to suggest to all pet owners is to microchip their pet.

“You never know what can happen. Microchipping a pet can always help when reuniting them with families, just like it helped Chestnut,” she said.