When Marine Robert Connell was previously deployed four years ago, his cat Hemi when looking for him and never came back. Connell and his wife searched for their beloved pets for months, but eventually moved to North Dakota without him.

Last week, Craven Animal Services was able to locate Hemi through his microchip. The Connells immediately flew 2,000 miles to North Carolina to collect their cat and complete their family.

Connell first found Hemi as a small, grey kitten curled up on his car’s engine near Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station. He and his wife immediately took to the kitten and named him Hemi after the car engine where they found him.

“Before I had kids, the only thing I could connect to was a cat,” Connell told reporters. Hemi comforted and calmed the military vet after he began to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. “I never knew a cat would get attached to me, or I get attached to it.”

After Connell was deployed in 2011, Hemi vanished.

“He kept looking for my husband and couldn’t find him,” Jennifer Connell said. “And one day, he got out, and we were never able to find him.”

When an animal control employee called Jennifer and told they had found Hemi wandering the military base, she cried over the phone. Hemi’s journey to North Dakota was hampered by a record-breaking snowstorm, so Connell flew to North Carolina to pick up the cat himself.

“Hey I got some good news for you Hemi, we got a place lined up, in two months we’re going to have a nice big yard,” the military vet said to his cat. “You ready to go home? You ready to go home?”