Her beloved moggy escaped just months before Susan Manson left her island home in Scotland in 2011.
So when a stray cat that looked like Mona was found last week, the 34-year-old, who has returned to live in Lerwick, Shetland, dismissed any idea it could be her beloved pet.
After seeing the image of Moggie sheltering under the bins in a local Facebook group about missing pets, Manson put the idea to the back of his mind, not thinking it could be real.
But, as he compared her markings to old photographs of Mona, his “denial” diminished and he began to realize that it really could be his long-lost pet, last seen 13 years ago.
He began searching the animal’s former “hanging places” and finally found her under the containers where she had been photographed, not far from where she used to live all those years ago.
Mona disappeared in Shetland in 2011, just months before owner Susan Manson moved in.
They were eventually reunited after Manson borrowed a humane trap from the Scottish SSPCA to catch her.
Manson, who moved to England after Mona’s disappearance, admitted she had assumed the cat had died but was now “excited” to have her back in her life.
She said: ‘I’m absolutely delighted.
‘To be fair, it’s a bit surreal. When the photo first appeared I didn’t say anything at first, because I thought “surely not.”
Susan Manson and her daughter Merran with photographs of Mona taken more than a decade ago
‘I still can’t believe this happened. You hear about cats coming back after two or three years, but 13 years is a long time.’
As a precaution, Mona was taken to local vets to be examined and apart from a slight hint of arthritis, the 16-year-old cat appears to be doing well.
Manson has now created a temporary enclosure under his stairs to allow the animal to gradually get used to its new surroundings.
It remains a mystery where she has been living all these years, but her owner said that “someone must have been feeding her, because she was still quite friendly.”