Cat returned home to Colorado from New York City

[Maria]

Willow, Missing Colorado Cat, Found In New York City Streets

In praise of microchips! And keeping your home address updated with the chip company records.

[Katy]

Wow, 5 years! Thank goodness for microchips! That's a long way for kitty to travel .

[Maria]

Wonder what happened to kitty or if she had found a new home that didn't know she may be microchipped...and she got away from them too!

[Lani]

Oh my goodness!

Pixel (our cat who was lounging in my husband's Aeronaut the other day) is an indoor cat but she loves to wuzzle her back on concrete, so every chance she gets, she asks me to let her outside.

Some years ago, I opened the door to talk to some missionaries, and Pixel slipped out all on her own unbeknownst to me. Worse, I didn't realize she was gone until I was ready to go to bed (I usually call her over so she can curl up by me on the bed). She often finds a little hidey hole to nap in so I don't bat an eye if I don't see her for hours on end.

She wound up going missing and I was just in tears!!! We printed up a hundred flyers and posted them everywhere, and I'd be out with a flashlight calling out her name for days.

Happy ending, though: It turned out she was hanging out in our apartment complex, and one of our neighbors recognized her from our flyer about 5 days after she'd gone missing! She managed to coax Pixel into her car in her stall and then came and asked us to confirm whether the cat she found was Pixel. It was!

Since that episode, Pixel is now microchipped and always wears a collar with tag. I don't ever want to go through THAT again. I was an inconsolable mess for the whole time she was gone.

[gmanedit]

The cat was found not far from me, on E. 20th Street. Our fine media couldn't be arsed to go to 20th Street and ring some doorbells to find out who lost a cat. Somebody was taking care of it for five years.

[Maria]

Gmanedit - that was the point I was trying to state above too! She was somewhere and got away from there too. I was thinking - where would the cat be happiest - where she was as a kitten five years ago, or with her NY home for the past five years?

I knew a family ages ago that had a large dog that they gave away "because he couldn't be trained." Years later, they get a call from the police - "we found your dog" Huh? He still had the same dog tags on, so this family went to investigate...and "their" dog was all trained and so....they took him! I remember hearing about this and was too young to speak up. BUT SOMEONE ELSE WAS MISSING HIM! Those that took the time to give him training etc. What if there was a small child up at night crying because their beloved pet was missing? This family that took him back - never informed the other owners. They just kept the dog because he was now trained and the work wasn't on their shoulders. I felt for the family that was missing him, and if I knew who they were....would have contacted them!

(This was before the days of microchips.)

All the more I make sure to keep my cat's microchip papers along with other important documents....for if I ever move, it will remind me to contact them.