COEUR d'ALENE — A microchip led to the reunion of a cat missing for nearly two months with its owner.

Wiley, a 7-year-old gray-striped tabby, was found early Saturday afternoon near Annie and Dalton avenues after someone reported seeing an injured cat.

Coeur d'Alene Animal Control Officer Jon Beamesderfer said after another officer scanned the cat for a microchip, they matched it with their records and found owner Katy Sevy, who had filed a lost-cat report.

The caller who reported Wiley said he thought it might have been hit by a car. Sevy said Wiley was in rough shape and she took him to an emergency veterinarian.

“He is bone thin, horribly dehydrated, and having neurological issues,” she wrote in an email to The Press. “Hopefully the vertigo type issues clear up when he is hydrated.”

Wiley ventured out of his Coeur d’Alene home off Elderberry Circle on Feb. 22 when a garage door was accidentally left open.

The cat, adopted about three years ago, is a beloved family member.

“Our cat got us through the hardest times in life,” she wrote.

Despite searching for hours, putting up hundreds of flyers all over town, posting classified ads in The Press and contacting the Kootenai Humane Society, there had been no sign of Wiley until Saturday. Sevy and her husband even offered a reward for his return.

She said it looked like Wiley had not eaten for some time and had been attacked by several animals, perhaps feral cats. 

“Hopefully he will come home (from the vet) tomorrow,” she said.

Beamesderfer said the case highlights the importance of microchipping pets. The information is available to officers and makes it possible to quickly track down a lost pet’s owner.

Coeur d’Alene animal control officer Shanea Ezzell was the one who found Wiley and brought him to a relieved Sevy.

“If we find it, we can reunite” the cat and owner, Beamesderfer said.