Moving across the country can be stressful. Add in having to travel with a pet, and the tension can rise. Especially when that pet is a cat.

Cats are often known for their stubborn behavior, for the ability to do whatever pleases them as often as they would like. And for one woman, her cat proved to be quite willing to travel without her.

Jamie McCall was moving from Florida to Michigan with her cat, Tucker. Half-way through her drive, she made a stop to rest at a hotel in Tennessee. 

My cat’s an escape artist,” McCall said. “He sits hunched at the door and waits for someone to open it, then he runs out.”

After McCall returned from getting lunch, she realized Tucker had escaped the room. “I could not find him. I looked everywhere, for hours.”

Jamie McCall holds her cat, Tucker. Tucker escaped their Tennessee hotel room while the pair were travelling from Florida to Michigan.

Heartbroken, McCall waited for as long as she could. But, finally, she had to continue on to Michigan. Before going, she posted to a Facebook page for lost pets in that area, hoping that someone would be able to find Tucker.

And almost like magic, it worked. Just two days after McCall had left, Holly Lillard said she while she was outside, near the hotel, spotted a cat running out from under a nearby car. 

She called for the cat, and he quickly came to her. Realizing he had to be someone’s pet, she said immediately started trying to find the cat’s owner.

When no one came forward, she posted a picture of Tucker on her own area’s ‘Lost and Found Pets’ Facebook page. In a twist of fate, her aunt and cousin created and ran the page. 

“Before the day was even over, I’d found Jamie and her post,” Lillard told People.

“She sent pictures and I knew immediately it was Tucker,” McCall said.

Only one thing stood between McCall and reuniting with Tucker – she was already in Michigan.

I was trying to make arrangements to get him back to me, but I just couldn’t afford it,” she said. “I was not financially able to have him shipped back to me or anything like that.”

But just like the bit of fate that led Lillard to find her cat, the rescuer had a simple solution – her grandparents just happened to have a home in Michigan and would be traveling there 4 weeks later. They immediately offered to drop the cat off at McCall’s new home. “What are the odds!?” McCall asked, laughing.

During the wait, the women spoke on the phone constantly. McCall said Lillard would give her updates on how Tucker was doing, including his newfound enjoyment of cuddling with her 10-year-old dog.

Jamie McCall was reunited with her cat Tucker, who had been lost more than 600 miles away.

When Lillard’s grandparents arrived one-month later, and after more than 600-miles of traveling with a cat, McCall and Tucker were finally back together. “He was returned to me right before Christmas, and I was having a really hard time then,” she said. “It was a wonderful thing.”

Not only did McCall get Tucker back, Lillard had sent along a handmade Christmas sleigh for McCall, with some money tucked inside.

“It was enough that they brought my cat back to me, at no charge, all the way across the United States, but to offer me a Christmas gift too. I was so overwhelmed,” McCall said. 

The two women have now formed a friendship that wouldn’t have been possible if not for Tucker’s antics.

“I fell in love with her from the get-go,” said McCall. “Jamie is amazing. I still talk to her about once a week,” Lillard. “She’s so funny. I’m so glad she found us.”

Watch the joyful reunion below.

Sources: People | ClickOnDetroit