Revealed: The True Story of Willow the Cat

The mystery cat who took the media by storm this week isn’t such a mystery anymore: An alert reader of Gothamist wrote in to reveal the secret biography of Willow, who turned up in New York years after going missing in Colorado. Turns out the New York Times’ guess was right on the money: After the cat escaped her home in Boulder, a skier visiting Colorado “fell in love with her” and took her home on a plane to New York.

Eventually, however, Willow was taken to a shelter “by someone who loved her very much, but was unable to give her all the time and attention she deserves,” the tipster explains. At the shelter, she was identified and traced back to her original owners by her microchip. Soon, she’ll head back to her home in Boulder for the first time in five years. Click through for more on Willow. (More cat stories.)