Cat missing since June to be returned from Wichita to owners in Florida

? A 10-year-old house cat who apparently roamed the streets of Wichita since escaping her cat carrier in June will soon be heading back to Florida to be reunited with her family.

The cat, named Ninja, got away when the family stopped at a Wichita hotel on June 9 on the way to Colorado. Renee and Brett Farmer of Sarasota, Fla., said they searched as long as they could before leaving Wichita. They kept in contact with Wichita shelters but had come to believe they likely would not see Ninja again.

Kelly Schuhs, who feeds feral cats in downtown Wichita, saw a new face in July and suspected the cat was tame.

“Feral cats don’t meow, they don’t want love or to be picked up,” Schuhs said. “When I get new cats that are tame, you have to assume they are strays or sometimes people have dumped them. I thought somebody must have dumped her.”

Then last weekend, Friends of Felines did a Trap, Neuter and Return of a feral cat colony in Wichita, and Ninja was among the 40 cats captured. She was checked for a microchip, which led to the Farmers’ phone number, The Wichita Eagle reported.

She was treated for fleas and a superficial wound to her neck before being given a clean bill of health on Wednesday. That will allow the cat to be flown from Wichita to Tampa, Fla., and a reunion with the Farmers sometime in the next two weeks.

“We want our sweetie pie as soon as possible,” Brett Farmer said.

The Farmer family got the call about Ninja Sunday afternoon.

Cheryl Taskinen, president of Friends of Felines, said it’s unusual for such stories to have happy endings.

“It is also so rare when you have one from so far out of town,” she said.