Hanover: Lucky, a 3-year-old female tabby cat that went missing a year ago, has been returned to her home in north-central Germany after showing up in a village some 60 kilometres (37 miles) away on Tuesday night.

The cat's owner reported its disappearance from her home in the village of Wallensen outside Hanover in November 2022. Searches of the area by the 52-year-old and her children, however, were unsuccessful.

On Tuesday night, a 39-year-old woman in the village of Garbsen noticed the feline as it sat on her porch looking to come inside.

The woman quickly distributed a photo of the cat in a neighborhood group chat. One group member, a local police officer, stopped by while on patrol to scan the animal's chip implant.

Upon scanning the chip, the officer saw that the cat had been registered as missing.

Police then contacted TASSO e.V., an animal protection organisation that, among other things, maintains an active national registry of missing animals. TASSO, in turn, contacted the owner to give her the happy news.

Garbsen Police Chief Christoph Ahlborn said the woman arrived at police headquarters late Tuesday night to pick up her much-missed pet.

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