A cat that escaped his owners while the family was relocating from Alaska to Maryland last summer will be returned to them, thanks to a microchip implanted in his body.

The adventure of Eddie, a shorthair male, began when a couple moved to Maryland from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska in June. They decided to spend a few days sightseeing in the Black Hills along the way.

At the end of their visit, the couple was loading their car in the parking lot of a Wyoming motel when their two cats became frightened by a storm and broke free from their kennels. One cat returned, but Eddie could not be found despite hours of searching. The family eventually continued the trip without him.

But recently, the staff at a Rapid City, Wyoming, hotel caught Eddie and called the local humane society, according to Phil Olson, director of the Humane Society of Black Hills, Wyoming.

A scanning device detected Eddie’s identifying microchip, embedded just under the skin near his shoulder blades. His owners had the microchip implanted in the cat when they adopted him from an animal shelter in Alaska. The scanner provided the microchip’s identifying number and the staff tracked down his owners in Maryland.

During the five months he was on his own, Eddie suffered some bite wounds and has become thin, according to Olson, but he is healing and being fed. As soon as Eddie is well enough to travel, he will be flown to Maryland to be reunited with his owners, Olson said.