--- title: Cat Walks 12 Miles Home in Portland Oregon description: Cat walks 12 miles back to its old home after family moves in Portland, Oregon. canonical: https://time.com/2900954/cat-walks-12-miles-home/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-19T15:39:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:10:56.152Z og:title: Discerning Cat Walks 12 Miles Back to Old Home Because He Didn't Like His New One og:description: Curious George? og:url: https://time.com/2900954/cat-walks-12-miles-home/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt812b7fcc6c920c76/69869842adae44cbd4543c43/cat-paws.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: cat-paws og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Discerning Cat Walks 12 Miles Back to Old Home Because He Didn't Like His New One twitter:description: Curious George? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt812b7fcc6c920c76/69869842adae44cbd4543c43/cat-paws.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Discerning Cat Walks 12 Miles Back to Old Home Because He Didn't Like His New One > Sponsored content. 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Waxman Staff Writer Jun 19, 2014 3:39 PM UTC 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) 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), 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. 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