It's quite remarkable to see a cat enjoy his nine lives for so long, all the more so because this particular feline was abandoned after two decades.

Tigger's former owner dropped him off at a Maryland animal hospital back in 2014, then never came back to get him.

"Day by day, week by week, the owner slowly lost contact with the hospital," Buisch explained to TODAY in an email. "She would promise to be there the next day and then they wouldn't hear from her for weeks. Eventually they lost all contact."