Cat comes back with high-tech help
Published Wednesday November 11th, 2009
17 months on lam | Family overjoyed to get pet back safe and sound
If Merlot could talk, what a tale he could tell.
Kathy Blouin of Burton said she's been humming the theme song from television's Littlest Hobo - which featured a wandering, do-good German shepherd - since her long-haired, mixed breed grey cat came home Sunday after 17 months astray.
Blouin got a call from the Fredericton SPCA on Sunday about her missing cat.
She looked around her livingroom and counted three noses - the family's other cats - and scratched her head.
"I don't know what cat you're talking about?" Blouin replied.
When the SPCA staff member described the grey and white cat in its charge, Blouin figured it must be her lost feline.
She threw on her coat, collected her eight-year-old son, Emeric, and hopped in her vehicle to bring Merlot home.
A microchip embedded in his neck helped SPCA staff members identify his owners.
"I got him at the SPCA and when you get a cat at the SPCA, they microchip them," Blouin said. "They just scanned it and my name, address and phone number just popped up on the screen."
Merlot disappeared June 21, 2008, when he was 11 months old.
Blouin and her husband Simon Banville left their two boys Emeric and Tristan, 9, with a relative while they attended a wedding in June 2008.
The little cat door that her critters use to enter and exit the family home during the summer was accidentally shut.
"Merlot couldn't get back in and then he never ever did come back home. We thought for sure that he had gotten killed by a wild animal because he was really small," she said.
In fact, the cat was recently picked up by someone in the Welsford area.
"He (Merlot) was just walking on the road and somebody picked him up and brought him into Fredericton (SPCA). I don't know how he got there," Blouin said.
"But he was friendly, so nice. He was cared for. He hasn't been out on the prowl, that's for sure because he was nice and fluffy. It's as if he never left. I know it's crazy."
With Merlot back in the clan, the household is now a four-cat one and everyone is overjoyed.
He was a favourite of her husband's, but everyone in the household missed the pet, Blouin said.
Merlot's photo album is still on Blouin's Facebook page.
"We still talked about him," she said.
"He's just like the Littlest Hobo," Blouin said.
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My name is Angela Cormier, last Tuesday at suppertime Merlot was sitting at my door crying, at first i thought it was one of my three, but opened the door and saw a beautiful grey/white cat. I fed him and took care of him and claimed him as one of the family. My daughter played with him and they chased each other around outside. It was getting cold outside so i made him a shelter with a quilted blanket and set it on my doorstep, he would sleep there each night in his little box with the outside light turned on for him. I tryed to move him into the shed but Merlot did'nt like to be away from the door, i think it made him feel at ease and protected to stay close and hear peoples voices. I knew it was getting colder and discovered he was declawed so i made posters and put them on the mailboxes in hopes his family would see them; but noone called for him. On Sunday we took him into the SPCA not knowing what his fate would be, i was so relieved to find he had an owner. Thank God!
The cat came back, the very next day.'
The cat came back, they thought he was a goner.
But the cat came back
He just couldn't stay away
Now, try living with that song in your head all day!
Beautiful tale(or tail?), Angela. You're a hero to all kitties (and kittie lovers) everywhere.
Great story