Hollywood has long been fascinated by the premise of our furry friends hitting the open road. In “The Adventures of Milo and Otis,” an orange tabby cat and a pug become separated and roam across deserts, forests and rushing rivers to find each other. The cartoon classic “An American Tail” tells the story of a Russian mouse who gets lost after immigrating to the United States.

Giddy the kitty has a story to rival them all. Best of all, it’s completely true.

Back in March, the brown, orange and white cat was dropped off at the Clatsop County Animal Shelter in Warrenton as a stray. According to protocol, volunteers scanned her neck for a microchip in the hopes of discovering some clue to who she was and where she’d come from.

Fortunately, Giddy was among the 10 percent of cats who arrive at the shelter with identification chips, says shelter volunteer and former animal control officer Lori Huntley, who was involved in Giddy’s rescue and relocation.

But even when an animal does have a chip, owner searches often hit dead ends; owners relocated and forget to register a new address, phones become disconnected, and pets are often lost forever as a result.

Again, Giddy had fate on her side. Giddy was registered to a William Tweedy of Reno, Nevada, and his phone number was current.

When shelter volunteers phoned him, they got the surprise of their life: up until she ran away two years back, Giddy, too, had been a Nevada resident. One evening, as Tweedy was returning home from work, Giddy (then known as “Jade”) ran out the front door and never came back.

No one is sure what happened to Giddy during her two years off the map. It’s unlikely that she traveled all that way on her own four paws, and Huntley guesses that she was taken in by someone who later relocated to the West coast, where Giddy got lost a second time.

But a happy ending for Giddy and her owner was anything but guaranteed: Tweedy wanted his wandering cat back, but couldn’t shoulder the cost of a return ticket.

Huntley, who owns two dogs and five cats herself, was determined to get the cat back to Nevada never the less.

“Here was this guy who had lost his cat, had no idea what happened, no closure,” she said. “Being animal owners ourselves, we can empathize with wanting to get your animal back home. And if we could get her home, that would be one less animal at the shelter.”

So Huntley contacted Clatsop Animal Assistance, and soon, President Rae Zimmerling was on the case. In the end, Huntley agreed to purchase a ticket with her own accumulated airline miles. Giddy’s fare, on the other hand, would be covered by a little help from CAA and whatever additional donations they could collect.

In April, Huntley and Giddy boarded a Southwest Airlines flight headed southeast with Giddy in tow.

“She was my carry-on baggage,” Huntley said. “I just slid the carrier under the seat in front of me. She was a very good traveler. She wasn’t stressed, she didn’t cry. Not a peep.”

At 5:45 p.m., the arrived at the Reno airport, where Tracy Dean from the Nevada Humane Society was waiting.

After pausing for a few photographs, Huntley bid Giddy goodbye, turned right back around, and hopped onto the next westbound plane, departing at 7:20 p.m.

A few days later, Tweedy and Giddy were reunited.

In a “Thank You” letter to the shelter and CAA, Tweedy expressed surprise (and a little envy) at how far Giddy had roamed.

“I was so surprised to find she made her way to Oregon,” he wrote. “I kinda wish she had taken me there with her, Oregon is a beautiful state!!”

In her years with the shelter, Huntley has encountered all manner of cat and dog, but none with a story quite so unusual as Giddy’s.

“We’ve had animals come from different parts of the county, but it was always because the owner was a tourist and lost her animal, or had moved here,” she said.

Tweedy is much enjoying loving on his long-lost feline. And as for her name? He’s decided to keep on calling her Giddy, in tribute to the temporary family who worked so hard to bring her those many miles home.

Huntley strongly advises animal owners have their pets microchipped. The procedure is simple, she says, and can be done at any vet’s office. Keeping contact information updated after microchipping is also crucial, she added.

The shelter is still seeking donations to cover the cost of Giddy’s trip home.

For more information on microchipping, cat adoption or Giddy’s travel fund, call (503) 861-0737.