| On November 6th, 2005 about 7:00pm, I decided to go for a walk at a nearby park. While on my walk I noticed a man standing over by the side of the walkway looking at a drainage grate. Curious to what he was looking at, I stopped and asked. When I stopped to ask, I looked over and noticed a cat lying by the drainage grate. The man told me that he had done about 3 loops on the park trail and the cat was there every single time that he came by. He thought that maybe the cat was stuck in the grate, but didn’t want to approach the cat for fear that he would run out into the road that was nearby.
Well, of course I couldn’t walk away
and I had to know if the cat was o.k.
or not. So, I slowly made my
move. Well, as I got close the cat
perked up and started to come my way.
Thank goodness he wasn’t stuck and
looked to be all right. Very
friendly, well groomed, de-clawed, and
had a pink flea collar on. There was
no tag, but I knew that by the cat
having a collar on and being
de-clawed, this was a good sign that
this was someone’s cat.
Well, I didn’t know what I was
going to do with this cat, but I knew
that I couldn't leave him there at the
park all alone, but I couldn’t just
take him home and not try to find the
owner. I found a park ranger and even
talked to the Police that night and
the only help that they could offer me
was to tell me to call the Humane
Society and take the cat there and let
them deal with it. Well, I think you
can probably guess that wasn’t going
to sit very well with me. By this
time, it is about 11:00pm and no
places are even open for me to call.
So, I took the cat home with me and
got him all nestled into my garage
with food, water, liter, and warm
blankets. (I would have taken him
inside, but I don’t think my other 2
cats would have been very happy to
have a temporary guest)
The next day (Monday), the mission to find this friendly feline's owner was on. I looked up every Shelter and Humane Society in the surrounding Columbus area and just started to make phone calls. Well, everyplace was either not accepting or would only take a message and then someone would get back to me. After a full day of placing phone calls and not getting anywhere, I just didn't know what to do besides posting signs that I found this cat and hope that someone would see the sign.
So, the next day (Tuesday) at work I was talking to one of my colleagues and asking if he knew of any other resources that I could contact or use to help me in finding the owner of this cat. He told me that he had heard of a website called Pet FBI and that I should check out. The Pet FBI web site is an information center for missing or found cats, dogs, and other pets in Ohio. With nearly 13,000 reports going back to 1999, Pet FBI offers the most comprehensive information about lost and found pets in Ohio.
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At first I thought, What are the chances that the owner has gone onto the website and filled any information out, or for that matter, even knowing about the website? But my instinct told me to check it out anyways. I went onto the site and filled in the search criteria and waited for the results. The results came up and a list of about 15 different cats that have been lost pulled up…so I looked through each one and when I came to the last one…I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The description of this cat was to a T, and the kicker was that the cat was de-clawed and wearing a pink flea collar. Could this be the owner? What was really crazy about all of this was that the lost posting that the owner made on the Pet FBI site was made 10 minutes prior to me checking the website. So, as I am shaking with emotion, I call the number that is listed. This woman answers the phone and I ask if this is Amanda (the name listed on the website to contact). She says yes and I proceed to tell her that I think I found her cat, but I am not positive. I didn’t want to get her too excited if for some reason this wasn’t her cat. We agreed to meet after work at my place, so she could ID the cat. I get home and she is there already. She told me that she just couldn’t wait. So, I took her over to the garage and opened the door. She started to call for “Winnie” (the cat’s name) and out of nowhere Winnie comes running and jumps into the arms of Amanda (the owner). The cat was in fact hers and what a wonderful reunion it was that night.
Apparently, Winnie had gotten out on Friday night and was out for 3 days by herself till I found her. Crazy thing is that Amanda lives about 15 miles north of where I live and where the park is that I found Winnie. Amanda thanked me over and over and said what a blessing I was to have stopped, taken Winnie in, and then went through what I did to find her. But in reality, Winnie was a blessing to me. Experiencing reuniting Winnie with Amanda was one of the happiest moments that I have had. Amanda asked how she could repay me, and I told her that she could repay me by getting a tag for Winnie’s collar, and tell all of her friends about Pet FBI and how it has helped her.
The next day I went out to the Pet FBI website to look and see if Amanda had added any comments on the site and she did. Here is what she said:
I hope that you have enjoyed reading my story as much as I have enjoyed sharing it. Please check out the
Pet FBI website and tell all of your friends.
For a link to Pet FBI and other informational sites,
click here. |
