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ANIMAL RESCUE FROM NEW LIVES
El Zorro had been missing for four years but now he will be reunited with his owner
An animal rescue owner wants microchipped cats to become mandatory after a feline missing for four years has been reunited with its owners.
Donna Young, who runs New Lives Animal Rescue, brought Zorro into her care and discovered that when she put him up for adoption he was a lost cat.
Juanita Exter was on a Cambridge dairy farm about four years ago when Zorro got scared when they moved to Whakatāne and disappeared.
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“But I thought, well, we’ll go back for him,” said Exter.
Which he tried to do, but unfortunately the Fox panicked and took off again.
The new tenants were asked to look after him and let them know if he returned.
“It’s just our baby. But he never came back and that was the last we heard from him. We posted a lot of flyers, talked to neighbors, left flyers with the vets in Cambridge and nothing. “
She searched the missing animal pages on Facebook over the years, and then he appeared for adoption on the New Lives Animal Rescue page last month.
ANIMAL RESCUE FROM NEW LIVES
El Zorro was living under someone else’s house for four years.
“My daughter was like I’m sure she is Zorro’s mother. I took a look at the map, it sure was only seven minutes from our house. “
Zorro had been living under another house and the tenant had been feeding him for years, and Zorro came to New Lives Rescue because he was moving.
Exter, who now lives on the west coast of the South Island, had a video call with Young and Zorro to confirm it’s him. And now I’ll pick it up on Tuesday.
“He haunted me day and night, I’ve never left an animal behind and of course there’s nothing you can do if you don’t see it.”
Exter de-excites and vaccinates his cats, but does not microchip them.
“We never thought about that, but definitely now. I’m glad that he now has a microchip and that our other cat is microchipped. “
Young said it could have been a different story much earlier if the cat had been identified.
“This guy had the cat for four years, he was feeding it and if he had a microchip he could have been able to find its owner,” Young said.
She believes that the microchip should be mandatory for cats.
“People don’t like it because it’s expensive, but it’s legal for dogs. It has to start to be for cats. “
She said another concern is that people think cats are homeless and decide to feed them and not try to see if the feline has owners, by checking social media pages for missing animals.
