Missing ferret mysteriously found 10 miles away. Then came tearful reunion in NC
A missing ferret mysteriously was found more than 10 miles away — then came an emotional reunion.
“There were tears everywhere in the room,” Becca Andrews, marketing coordinator for a North Carolina animal shelter, told McClatchy News via email. “Our director of operations came out of her office just to see what was going on. We were all really happy to see the joy of Pabu and his owner being reunited.”
The Asheville Humane Society said the family was back together two weeks after Pabu vanished from his home. One of his owners had gotten home from work and didn’t see him, setting off a search for clues.
“Pabu’s owners were desperate to find him,” the shelter wrote Sept. 1 in a Facebook post. “Their other ferret was also missing him terribly.”
Then one day, good Samaritans made a furry discovery under their car. They spotted a ferret and brought him to another shelter in the North Carolina mountains.
The Asheville Humane Society stepped in, noting that “it’s not every day that we get a call about a ferret.” The animal was found to be in good shape after being rescued.
“He was very social with our staff, super excited for pets and play,” Andrews wrote. “He was bouncy and funny, doing little happy hops when running around.”
The two shelters teamed up after someone remembered coming across a report about a lost ferret. Workers contacted the pet’s owner, who rushed in.
“When she saw him, she instantly knew it was her Pabu, recognizing him by his distinctive gait,” the shelter wrote. “After two weeks on his own, Pabu returned home, successfully reunited with his sibling and loving family.”
The heartwarming reunion made the family feel “whole again,” one of the owners told the humane society. But mystery lingers, as the shelter still doesn’t know how Pabu escaped from his home or how he ended up traveling more than 10 miles.
“We can only guess, but some possibilities are that he hitched an accidental vehicle ride or that someone picked him up as a stray and moved him but didn’t report finding him,” Andrews wrote.
This story was originally published September 4, 2025 at 2:05 PM with the headline "Missing ferret mysteriously found 10 miles away. Then came tearful reunion in NC."
