Cat that went missing in Colo. 5 years ago is found on NYC street

NEW YORK - A calico cat named Willow, who disappeared from a home near the Rocky Mountains five years ago, was found Wednesday on a Manhattan street and will soon be returned to a family in which two of the three kids and one of the two dogs may remember her.

How she got to New York, nearly 1,800 miles away, and the kind of life she lived in the city are mysteries.

But thanks to a microchip implanted when she was a kitten, Willow will be reunited in Colorado with her owners, who had long ago given up hope.

"To be honest, there are tons of coyotes around here, and owls," said Jamie Squires, of Boulder. "She was just a little thing, five and a half pounds. We put out the `Lost Cat' posters and the Craigslist thing, but we actually thought she'd been eaten by coyotes."

Squires and her husband, Chris, were "shocked and astounded" when they got a call Wednesday from Animal Care & Control, which runs New York City's animal rescue and shelter system.

Willow had been found on East 20th Street by a man who took her to a shelter.

"My husband said, `Don't say anything to the kids yet. We have to make sure,'" Squires said. "But then we saw the picture, and it was Willow. It's been so long."

ACC Executive Director Julie Bank said a scanner found the microchip that led to the Squires family.

"All our pets are microchipped," Squires said. "If I could microchip my kids, I would."

The children are 17, 10 and 3 years old, so the older two remember Willow, Squires said. As for the 3-year-old, "She saw the photo and said, `She's a pretty cat.'"

The Squireses also have a yellow Labrador named Roscoe, who knew Willow, and an English mastiff named Zoe.

"We had another dog back then, too, and I remember that Willow would lie with them as they all waited to be fed," Squires said. "She thought she was a dog."

Squires said Willow escaped in late 2006 or early 2007 when contractors left a door open during a home renovation.

Since then, the family had moved about 10 miles from Broomfield to Boulder, but it kept its address current with the microchip company.

Bank recommended that all pet owners use microchips.

She said Willow, who now weighs 7 pounds, is healthy and well-mannered and probably has not spent her life on the mean streets of Manhattan. But there are no clues about her trip east or anything else in the five years she's been missing.

Squires seemed a bit worried about a possible New York state of mind.

"I don't know what kind of life she's had, so I don't know what her personality will be like," she said. When Willow disappeared, she said, "She was a really cool cat, really sweet."

The ACC and the Squireses were trying to arrange for transportation back to Colorado and health certificates and said it might be two weeks before the reunion. Willow may spend some time with a foster family in New York.

"The kids can't wait to see her," Squires said. "And we still have her little Christmas stocking."

http://www.startribune.com/nation/129846553.html

Psychic joins search for missing cat in Lincolnshire

Friday, 21 May 2010 18:00 UK

An Indian psychic is helping to search for cat which went missing from a Lincolnshire village.

Oliver, a four-year-old tabby and white cat, went missing from Boothby Graffoe in October.

Owner Sue Machen, 56, has paid £1,000 for Hertfordshire-based company Animal Search UK to hunt for the animal.

It has employed psychic Sarita Gupta, who is based in Bangalore, to help in the search, a move which has been criticised by a sceptics' society.

Ms Gupta believes the cat has been adopted as a stray by a new family, who do not know he has an owner.

Ms Machen said: "The expense [for the search] is immaterial.

"I am just desperate to know what has happened to him. I am hoping he has wandered off and been picked up by someone."

Tom Watkins, who is leading the search, said: "We have had some good publicity and we are building up a picture of where Oliver might be.

"We are hoping the psychic is right and we will receive a call about where Oliver is.

"That would be mission accomplished if we can achieve that."

The team said a missing cat in Birmingham had been found in a Wendy house after the same psychic said it would turn up "where children play".

A spokesman for the Merseyside Skeptics Society said: "Looking at the advice given by the psychic in both cases, we have the suggestion that the cat is staying with another family, and the idea that lost cats like to be near children.

"Both of these are incredibly obvious scenarios to suggest for a missing cat, and would likely be the suggestions you'd get from someone without psychic powers - and without the need for a fee, too."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/8697714.stm
(Submitted by Liz R)

Bewildered bovine rescued from harbour

By Adrienne Francis
Mon Nov 30, 2009

A Darwin mariner says he and his crew arrived just in time to rescue a bewildered bovine from the harbour.

Ben Wall of Workboats Northern Australia says the Darwin Port Authority asked him to investigate reports of a floating steer near South Shell Island around 10am yesterday.

He says his crew found the steer, exhausted and close to drowning, swimming towards Darwin's liquefied natural gas plant at Wickham Point.

Mr Wall says it may have been treading water for up to four hours.

"When we got up really close it was aggravated and then they got a rope around it and then it sort of came out of that," he said.

"We got that off and then we finally got a life ring out just to keep its head above the water and then towed it ashore.

"Once we got it into land it was all good with our land crew there."

Mr Wall says the steer may have fallen into Darwin Harbour from East Arm Wharf while being loaded onto a live export ship bound for south-east Asia.

But the Northern Territory Live Exporters' Association says it is likely the steer was a stray.

Mr Wall says the steer may have evaded the harbour's crocodiles but its fate is certain.

"I reckon it probably might have to go and put a bit of weight on after that ordeal because it would have lost a fair bit of condition and then I don't think it will be too far off getting on a boat and over to Asia."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/30/2757588.htm

Lost dog turns up after nine years

Muffy the long-lost dog has finally been found - nine years after she disappeared and 1,250 miles away from her original home.

The terrier-cross or 'bitsa', was last seen in 2000 by her owners, the Lampard family on the Gold Coast in Australia's Queensland state, when she set off from a friend's home, seemingly never to return.

However, while the Lampards got on with their life, even getting a new dog - a Rottweiler called Jack whom sadly yet coincidentally died a few months ago - Muffy was embarking on an epic voyage south down Australia's east coast.

Whatever may have happened to Muffy over this last decade, she was spotted living as a filthy stray in a backyard by a concerned local in Melbourne, who informed the RSPCA.

Carers came to rescue the flea-ridden pooch and clean up her matted hair and severe dermatitis.
However, it was during this skin treatment that welfare agency officers came across the microchip that could identify her and trace her original owners.

Although it took a little investigative work due to the age of the chip, the Lampards were finally identified and tracked down, much to Natalie Lampard's surprise.

Her daughter Chloe, 17, was particularly over-the-moon, as she and Muffy were inseparable when she was a child.

Chloe is now preparing to fly to Melbourne to be reunited with her.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3422710.html