A Carrboro cat has been returned home a year after she wandered off and ended up in Chicago.

The cat, named Suki, belongs to the McMillan family. Jenny McMillan said Suki loves to be outside, especially in the summer months and one night last August, McMillan let Suki outside like she often did.

"(But) the next morning she wasn't at the door like I expected her to be," said McMillan. "By the next night, I thought, 'she should be here', and she basically never came home."

The McMillan's put up flyers and asked neighbors and although they got some leads, they never amounted to anything.

"We had totally given up ever seeing her again," McMillan said. "Just a few weeks ago, we started looking at some other cats in Morrisville, but we could never replace Suki, she was the best cat."

But earlier this month, one year after Suki went missing, McMillan was at work she got a phone call. Someone had actually found their cat.

"My jaw just dropped," she said. "I was like, oh my God I don't believe it, I really wanted to cry."

The only problem was the person who found Suki was in Chicago. The woman told McMillan the cat had just wandered up to her house one day.

"She was just someone who knew that a cat that friendly had to have a home and she wanted to find the owner," McMillan said.

The McMillan's aren't exactly sure how their cat managed to get all the way from their home in Carrboro to Chicago, but it was all thanks to a microchip that Suki was returned safe and sound. The woman brough Suki to the vet where the cat was scanned and through the information on the microchip, she was able to get in touch with the McMillan's.

"It was like having the whole family back together," said McMillan. "It was like a family reunion the day she came home."

Since Suki got back home, the McMillan's have been keeping her indoors a little more than they used to. And even though the cat has a microchip, they plan on getting her a name tag as well.