A Calgary family got a phone call they weren’t expecting last week.
Corinna Murray says an animal hospital in Okotoks rang the family to let them know they had their cat – an animal that had been missing for eight years.
“You just assume that obviously they died or something,” Murray said.
The calico, named Catherine, was adopted by the family as a kitten and lived with them until she was three.
That’s when she left the family’s Copperfield home and never returned.
Catherine, now 11, was found on a rural road south of town and taken to the Southern Alberta Veterinary Emergency in Okotoks
“I got the news when I was driving,” Murray said. “I pulled over … So I could look at the photo to see if that was her, and it was – and then I instantly started crying.”
Staff at the animal clinic said they tried everything to connect Catherine with her rightful owner.
“Hearing that she had both a microchip and a tattoo, and we still couldn’t locate any owners, just didn’t sit right with me,” said Kristen Kreitz.
Kreitz said she contacted the microchip company to see who inserted it.
“[They] told me that it had been implanted at the [Calgary] Humane Society. So, I then called the humane society, and they were able to give me the adopters’ information.”
“It was quite a few years old, so I was a little bit concerned that maybe she had been rehomed,” Kreitz added.
When she called Murray and asked her if she was missing a cat, Murray said “no,” not thinking it could possibly be Catherine.
“To survive all these years, we have no idea what she’s been through,” Murray said. “I really wish she could talk. She could tell her stories.”
Murray’s son Nathaniel was nine years old when Catherine left.
“She played such a big role in my life at nine,” he said. “And finally, being able to see her again, it was just an unbelievable experience.”
Nathaniel, now 17, says that the reunion was “surreal.”
“Just seeing her for the first time, I definitely felt a lot of shock and happiness seeing her again.”
He says the family will do their best to stop Catherine from escaping again.
“We don’t intend on letting her anywhere near the outside, because we can’t risk that happening again,” he said.
