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| Shirley Giard is reunited with her cat, Trucker. |
When Shirley Giard’s home in Bridport, Vt., was destroyed by a fire in November 2004, she feared her five cats had perished. Giard and her husband, Harold, moved into another house on their farm with their two dogs, but Shirley longed for her cats, especially an orange tabby named Trucker, the Addison County (Vt.) Independent reports.
Giard often visited the site of the burnt home in the days after the fire, hoping for a sign of the cat. “I missed him badly,” she told the Independent.
Earlier this month, three years and one week since the fire, Trucker came home. Giard first saw him dash off her front porch. Then, her daughter saw him streak by the next day. “This is the greatest gift I could have gotten,” Giard said. “It’s a Christmas miracle.”
Trucker appears healthy and well-fed, and Giard suspects the cat was fed by other people with soft spots for strays. Trucker seems happy to be home, she said, and hasn’t gone outside since he reappeared. One of Giard’s dogs, Lexi, seems pleased the cat is home, too.
“Now the hope is maybe another cat will show up,” Giard said. “But, I doubt it.” Although, if Trucker made it home, who’s to say another cat won’t, too?