I got an interesting — incredible — call at the cats-only boarding facility the other day. The voice on the other end asked me if we had lost a cat.
For a moment, I just sputtered. “I don’t think so,” I said. “Actually, I’m pretty sure we didn’t. There would have been a big note if somebody got out.”
The woman explained that she had found a cat on the (rather large) major road nearest the veterinarian and boarding facility, and had wondered if one of our guests had made a break for it. Then she told me an amazing story.
She had just pulled off the highway and was passing underneath the overpass when she saw a small, furry figure dart out and cross six lanes of traffic. Her own cat had recently passed away, and her conscience wouldn’t let her just keep driving when this cat was in trouble. She pulled into the nearest shopping center and tried to walk over to the road, but was blocked by a fence. Back into the car she went and managed to find a place to pull off on the road itself.
By this time, the cat was huddled on a little island on the highway onramp. The woman grabbed the cat and brought her home.
Since the cat wasn’t an escapee of ours, we started chatting about what she could do to try to find the owner. She was planning on bringing the cat to her vet to check for a microchip. But if the cat wasn’t chipped, then what? I suggested she call around to shelters and vets in the area, just in case someone reported a missing pet. She could hang signs around the shopping centers, and check online sites like Petfinder and Craigslist to see if anybody reported a missing pet there.
She kept going on about how sweet and clean the cat was — signs that the cat probably had a loving owner somewhere. I hope cat and owner are reunited, but I’m pretty sure that the woman who found the brave, traffic-crossing kitty will give the little girl a good home if the owner isn’t found.