One-eyed ginger cat ‘Champ’ reunited with family after missing for 7 years

After Champ went missing in 2015, the Baums believed he was dead. But a miraculous phone call changed everything.

Suzanne Baum says it was like "no time had passed" when she was reunited with 14-year-old Champ. Picture: Supplied

When Tina and Suzanne Baum’s beloved one-eyed ginger cat Champ disappeared from their Surrey Downs home in 2015, they believed he was dead.

More than seven years later, that all changed with a miraculous phone call – reuniting them not just with their beloved furry friend, but with a new family.

Suzanne Baum says it was love at first sight when she first met Champ as a stray while working as a veterinary nurse in Massachusetts, USA.

“He was such a lovely cat, he was super friendly … he had an injured eye so I got him all fixed up and ended up adopting him,” Mrs Baum said.

Shortly after, she met the other love of her life, Tina.

The couple spent a few years in the US before moving back to Tina’s home town of Adelaide in March 2015 – three cats and three dogs in tow.

It took six months, weeks of quarantine and “lots of money” to bring their four-legged brood across the border, but they soon settled into their new Surrey Downs home in Adelaide’s northeastern suburbs.

One-eyed ginger cat Champ, just before he went missing in 2015. Picture: Supplied

Suzanne Baum says it was like "no time had passed" when she was reunited with 14-year-old Champ. Picture: Supplied

With the cats getting used to their new surroundings, Champ began to wander further and further from the property until, in June 2015, he never came back.

Distressed and desperate to find their furry friend, the couple posted him on local Facebook page ‘Lost Pets of South Australia’, put flyers in every single mailbox in the area and contacted dozens of vet offices.

Champ, whose microchip was registered in the US, had not yet been registered in SA.

After weeks of searching, the couple was told by a local vet that a “one-eyed orange cat” had been put down.

“I was devastated. We looked for a really long time and got no hits back on his post. We thought, ‘maybe that’s what happened’, and it was just devastating,” Mrs Baum said.

Over the next seven years, the couple bought a farm in Allendale North, outside Kapunda, and began fostering more animals of all shapes and sizes – but none quite like Champ.

Then, last month, Tina received an unbelievable phone call.

“She had this really puzzled look on her face and came over to me and said, ‘Someone has just said they think they have our cat’,” Mrs Baum said.

Champ had been taken in by an older man back in 2015, who fed and cared for him until he passed away two years ago.

The elderly man’s son then took Champ to a local rescue shelter, where he was fostered by young Exeter mother Gemma Williams and her husband, who named him ‘Big Red’ – and even launched his own Instagram page.

Champ with Gemma (left), Suzanne (centre) and Tina (right). Picture: Supplied

One-eyed ginger cat Champ with his housemate Winston. Picture: Instagram

“Gemma said it would bother her that, when she had him, he would meow at night as if something wasn’t right,” Mrs Baum said.

“She said, ‘I knew he had a chip so I wanted to keep looking for his owners’.”

Ms Williams contacted Lost Pets of South Australia, whose volunteers trawled through seven years of records until they found a post that matched Champ’s description.

When Tina and Suzanne were finally reunited with their one-eyed cat from all those years ago, it was like no time had passed at all.

“I wasn‘t sure if he was going to recognise me. She put him on the bench top, he walked over and gave me some sniffs and then all of a sudden he threw his body into my chest and started purring,” Mrs Baum said.

“I started crying, everybody started crying … he let me hold him for over an hour. My heart felt like it would explode.”

The Baums and the Williams family now share custody of 14-year-old Champ, who lives at Ms Williams’ Exeter home and receives monthly visits from his original owners for “treats and cuddles”.

But it’s not just Champ who found a new family.

“He’s very happy and very comfortable there and Gemma is just a fantastic person, I’m just glad he’s with people who love and care about him as much as he did,” Mrs Baum said.

“I never thought that we would get Champ back in our lives … but we now have him, and an extended family.”

Originally published as One-eyed ginger cat ‘Champ’ reunited with family after missing for 7 years