One of the family cats — a domestic long hair with shades of grey colouring and white patches named Andy — normally sleeps at her feet, and was a regular presence every morning.
But this time, he wasn’t there.
A search of their home turned up nothing, except for a window screen from their front window on the floor of their living room. Jody and her daughter Sam put two and two together, and, well…
“He’d pulled the screen off the open window and jumped from the second story, into our flower bed and he took off,” Chell explained. “He’s not typically an outside cat, but he’s the kind of cat that the minute you open the door he wants to go through it. And he’s wrecked our back screen door, he’s constantly trying to escape.”
The previous evening, May 17, would be the last time they’d see Andy.
Until Tuesday evening.
Sometimes miracles happen, and the Chell family all of a sudden had one.
It wasn’t long before Andy settled into his old habits once he was home, like staking out this prime napping perch.All About Andy
The Chells adopted Andy from the Moose Jaw Humane Society when he was two or three years old, and right from the start, he was a bit of character.
“It seemed like he had street sense when we got him,” Jody said. “He would do weird things like eat out of the garbage, I’d never had a cat do that, or he’d drag our supper off the counter and into the living room.
“And he’s constantly trying to get outside. He was home literally five minutes last night and he was trying to get back outside,” she added with a laugh.
To say the least, Andy has no trouble with the giant bipeds in and around his life. He’d managed to get out of the house before, but the Chells’ neighbours on Wellington Drive knew the little guy well, and each time it wasn’t long before he was home.
“Andy has a personality about him, he’s so friendly,” says Jody. “Any time he escaped he’d wander around Wellington and people were taking selfies with him, so it was kind of a joke around here that everyone knew him.”
Andy always made his way home; his family would pick him up, someone would drop him off.
But this time, that didn’t happen.
The Search
A major part of the problem is that Andy didn’t have his collar on, a collar that had the family contact information on it. Jody had taken it off so the little guy could sleep comfortably.
When it became apparent Andy had actually and truly gone missing this time, the Chell family did their best to get him back. Signs were out and about offering a reward, and it was hoped it would be just a matter of time before, well, the cat came back.
But it wasn’t the very next day.
Or the day after that.
One month went by. Then another.
And all of a sudden it was early July.
“We’ve never had one go missing, and you just don’t have that closure,” Jody said. “When they pass away, you at least know where they are and what happened, but this is the first time we’ve ever lost a cat. You’ll never know what happened.”
The SnapChat post by Brandon Olafson that started the reunion of Andy and his family. Facebook photo.The Miracle
Brandon Olafson was home on his farm eight kilometres west of Moose Jaw when he heard meowing coming from the tree line on his property. Meowing that didn’t belong to any cat he knew.
He went out to investigate and there was this skinny grey and white cat that immediately came to him. Brandon took the cat onto his deck, snapped a photo and posted it to SnapChat with the caption ‘Came home to this little fella hanging out!’
And social media went to work.
“My daughter’s former teacher from Palliser and Central saw it and messaged me, and it was the one time I didn’t have my phone with me,” Jody said of Tiffany Ethier, who was one of the first to recognize what just might be Andy.
Tiffany contacted Jody’s daughter Sam, who “came into the kitchen saying ‘look at what Tiffany just sent me, I think it’s Andy’.”
A phone call to Brandon helped with the identification — Andy had a Humane Society tattoo on his right ear, and a very distinct bump on his hip from prior surgery. Both were there.
“When he said he found the bump, we bolted out there at about 160 kilometres per hour,” Jody said with a laugh.
When they arrived, that grey and white cat took one look at the humans who just arrived and lept into Jody’s arms. It was Andy, without a doubt.
“He was really skinny and looked a lot different because he’d lost his winter coat,” Jody said, adding that the lack of mats or any kind of fur issues was rather curious. “He seemed like he was okay, and was actually in pretty good shape, so we were wondering if someone was looking after him, even though he was skinny.”
Regardless, Andy was home.
And Jody posted a joyfully tearful video making the announcement, one that you can watch right here.
The announcement Jody posted on Facebook announcing Andy had been found. Coda
From what Jody can tell, Andy came through his time away in pretty decent shape.
As the video showed, he was happy to get to his food bowl, even if he did do the usual cat thing and eat too much, promptly throwing it right back up.
But he was happy to be home, and before long was napping back on his old perch high on a wall.
He’ll have to get used to three newcomers in the home, though, as the Chells are fostering a trio of kittens.
All in all, the way things turned out and the end result of the whole situation couldn’t have been better. And it showed just how much can be accomplished by people who care.
“It’s cool, because it shows the power of social media,” Jody said. “His coming home video is already at 6,000 views… and I can’t believe how many people stopped me on the street just to ask if we’d found him, or that they’ve looked for him. It’s just a cat, but so many people were constantly looking for him, that’s the power of social media.”
