Animal control cops pick up a stray calico near Palo Alto, just south of the San Francisco Bay area. The cat’s been hanging out behind a Chinese restaurant and goes dumpster diving for food multiple times each day.

The calico is put in a cage at the shelter where officials will hold him for adoption, but if there are no takers, he’ll likely be put down. These animal control folks are overrun with cats and the feeding budget is limited. Many times, officers bring scraps from home to help feed the animals in their care.

Before any official action, the calico is scanned with an electronic reader. This is a routine practice with all dogs and cats picked up on the streets.

Mostly the scans produce nothing — but this time they get a hit! There’s a computer chip embedded in the flesh on the cat’s back. From the scan, the vet reads a number.

This number is compared with a national registry that maintains a list of domestic animals. The vet learns the calico cat’s name is "Delmonico." The listing also contains the name, address, and telephone number of the cat’s last known owner. But the date of the cat’s registration is 10 years old.

Turns out Delmonico’s owner lives in Fort Collins, Colorado — some 1,200 miles from Palo Alto, California. The cat would have had to cross Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Arizona to get to Palo Alto. Cats are known to be wanderers up and down alley ways — but when was the last time you saw a cat on an interstate highway? Never!

The vet uses a cell phone to call the owners who are surprised, to say the least. Delmonico has been missing for over 10 years — since he was a kitten. He was a little girl’s kitty, but the girl isn’t little anymore, now she’s a teenager.

Anyway, the family takes an impromptu vacation to California where they reclaim Delmonico. As far as we know, everybody, including the teenager, is living happily ever after. And as you know, happiness, with a teen, is a major breakthrough.