A cat that vanished in Georgia seven years ago returned to her owners when she needed to get in out of the rain.

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Marty and Angela McGuire told the Thomasville Times-Enterprise the cat, named Sweetie, disappeared shortly after being spayed in April 2000. Marty McGuire said the veterinarian told them she could have become disoriented because of the anesthesia.

On Dec. 15, Sweetie returned to their house with their other cats. But the McGuires said they did not recognize her at first because they thought she was Wild Cat, one of Sweetie's offspring.

The next morning they realized the newcomer was not Wild Cat.

"Then, we got to looking at her, called her 'Sweetie' and she came up to us and rubbed on us," McGuire said.

Sweetie was still carrying staples from the surgery that had not been removed because of her vanishing act.

Now, the McGuires are trying to figure out where the cat has been for the past seven years.

"I always told my wife Sweetie wasn't dead and she'd come back," Marty McGuire said. "She is definitely our Christmas miracle."