--- description: Cat walks 12 miles back to its old home after family moves in Portland, Oregon. title: Discerning Cat Walks 12 Miles Back to Old Home Because He Didn't Like His New One image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt812b7fcc6c920c76/69869842adae44cbd4543c43/cat-paws.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Discerning Cat Walks 12 Miles Back to Old Home Because He Didn't Like His New One  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Jun 19, 2014 3:39 PM CUT  Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Jun 19, 2014 3:39 PM CUT A cat ran away and walked 12 miles back to its old home after its owners moved to a different neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, [The Oregonian](http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/06/cat%5Fwalks%5F12%5Fmiles%5Fback%5Fto%5Fold.html "undefined") reports. The new renters reportedly called and said they thought they found the two-year-old tabby named George, which showed up and kept wanting to be pet. Last year, a tortoiseshell cat named Holly made headlines for trekking 200 miles back home to West Palm Beach, Florida, after running away from the family vacation at a R.V. rally in Daytona Beach. While scientists don’t know for sure how a cat could find its way home from a long distance, they say cats navigate in familiar areas via sight and smell. Patrick Bateson, a behavioral biologist at Cambridge University, [told the New York Times](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/one-cats-incredible-journey/?%5Fphp=true&%5Ftype=blogs&%5Fr=0 "undefined"), it’s possible that cats can sense “the smell of pine with wind coming from the north, so they move in a southerly direction.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2900954/cat-walks-12-miles-home/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2900954/cat-walks-12-miles-home/"},"headline":"Discerning Cat Walks 12 Miles Back to Old Home Because He Didn't Like His New One","datePublished":"2014-06-19T15:39:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:56.152Z","description":"Curious George?","url":"https://time.com/2900954/cat-walks-12-miles-home/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt812b7fcc6c920c76/69869842adae44cbd4543c43/cat-paws.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt812b7fcc6c920c76/69869842adae44cbd4543c43/cat-paws.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"cat-paws","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2900954/cat-walks-12-miles-home/","name":"Discerning Cat Walks 12 Miles Back to Old Home Because He Didn't Like His New One"}}]}] ```