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A beloved family cat has been spotted on Twizel by its owner for the first time since he disappeared from Temuka, 100 miles away, two years ago.
Cooper, a moggy red and white, was spotted by owner Loretta Reynolds in the small town of Mackenzie on Friday, where he traveled after seeing a social media post Wednesday from a woman asking if anyone had information on a stray cat. who was entering. through your cat’s door in Twizel and eating your cat’s food.
“When I first saw the message, my heart sank and I knew by looking at the cat’s face that it was him,” he said.
Reynolds lost Cooper two years earlier when the cat disappeared from his home in Temuka while the family was on vacation in Wanaka.
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The day they got home, they couldn’t find Cooper, even though Reynolds’s sister, who was looking after the house, said she saw the cat that morning.
Reynolds said it was “very out of character for Cooper; he is usually close to eat ”.
Over the next few days, the family searched for Cooper, walking around the neighborhood calling for their pet and posting on social media, to no avail.
“We have four kids and they were all very sad that he was not around and upset that we couldn’t find him,” Reynolds said.
“Over time, we realized that we had lost it.”
Reynolds now believes that Cooper may have traveled to Twizel with his neighbor, who was moving things from Temuka at the time the cat disappeared.
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This photo, posted on social media, led Loretta Reynolds to drive 100 miles to see if it was her missing moggy.
“At the time, our neighbor across the street had family in Twizel and he was coming and going a lot from here,” he said.
“Now that I think about it, he may have climbed into his vehicle, or his trailer, or a box, and ended up here.”
After seeing the post on social media, Reynolds contacted the woman who took the photo and has since heard from numerous Twizel residents who said the cat had been prowling their home.
He also heard that the cat spent a lot of time at Twizel Holiday Park, rummaging through garbage cans.
When Reynolds and her son left for Twizel on Friday morning, the woman sent her a face-to-face photo of the cat, which she said “really upset her.”
Happy but upset. Overwhelmed. “
When he got to Twizel, the cat was under the woman’s house.
“When we called him by name, he answered, and sat under the house for quite some time.
“We put some tuna in him, of which he ate a little.”
Reynolds said Cooper “looks terrible” and he’s matted and very skinny “and we really want to catch him and get here and bring him home.”
Finally, the cat came out from under the house and Reynolds and his son followed him down the path, calling him by name.
“He would stop every now and then when we called him by name and we would turn and look at us, so I’m pretty sure it’s him.”
Despite the cat getting away from them, Reynolds will stay in Twizel overnight on Friday in hopes of capturing the beloved pet.
“It breaks my heart to think about what he’s had to go through and I just hope we can catch him and give him love.
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Cooper the cat before disappearing two years ago.
“He is an old cat, now he is almost 12 years old. We rescued him when he was a kitten, when he was five or six weeks old. His mother was a stray in our neighbor’s woodshed and couldn’t care for him, so we caught him and brought him into our family, and he thrived.
“He was a beautiful cat, a beautiful, beautiful cat. We had a puppy at the same time and he and Stella were best friends, and I think he thought it was a dog; he sat when ordered, used to sleep in the kennel during the day in the sun with the dog. He was a character. ”
Reynolds asked Twizel residents to keep an eye out for Cooper.
“If he comes into your house, lock him in the laundry room or something and we’ll go straight to find him,” he said.
