Featured Post

May 2, 2008

COCOA is lost for 55 hours, and SMARTIE is found! (April 2008)


One morning Farah, Summer and the Jets all went outdoors, as usual, at about 7 a.m. Usually everybody runs in and out of the house every half-hour or so. Because she loves treats almost as much as she loves frequent cuddling, Cocoa in particular tends to stay close to the deck in the back yard.

But this day was different . . . Cocoa was not seen in the back yard all morning!

As usual, all the cats came in by 2:00 for a nap - all, that is, except for Cocoa.

By evening, Pat and Henry, the resident humans, were so alarmed that they walked all over the neighborhood calling "Cocoa! Co - Co - Co - Co - Co - CO-ah!"

That's what they did all day Saturday too.

On Sunday, they made this poster, with picture, which they put in over a hundred mailboxes:

LOST CAT

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Cocoa Cat left home on the morning of Friday, April 4, and did not return.
Cocoa has beautiful orange fur. She is a small girl, who usually stays close to home, and she is quite timid: she might hide from people.
We ask that you please check your garages and tool sheds in case Cocoa was accidentally shut in.
Many, many thanks . . .

They posted the same notice on the website "PEI Talk," which is read by almost every human on the Island.

Lots of neighbors called, and lots of people wrote in to "PEI Talk" to say they hoped Cocoa would be found soon. One person asked, why is she named "Cocoa"? Pat explained online:

"We fostered a mother and five kittens from the Humane Society. We named the male kittens Hershey and Smartie. We named the female kittens Cocoa, Taffy, and Tootsie. When the kittens were big enough, they and their mother went back to the Humane Society to be adopted. Smartie was adopted immediately, but not the others. We were so in love with them by then that we adopted Hershey, Cocoa, Taffy and Tootsie. Their mother was adopted by friends of ours. I wish we had kept Smartie!"

Well: BOTH the poster and the online notice got results!

Pat and Henry were barely home from putting the poster in the neighbors' mailboxes when Cocoa arrived at the back door, frightened and hungry and thirsty and smelling as if she had indeed been shut in a garage for over two days!

And then, Pat got an email message from a nice lady who read the notice on "PEI Talk," and who wrote us to say that Smartie now lives with her! And he is happy and healthy and mischievous! And he has four other cats to play with! And his name now is Max! And Pat and Henry are welcome to visit him! The nice lady even sent us some pictures of Smartie / Max - who looks just as we remember him:





Here is a baby picture of Cocoa (on the left) with Smartie (on the throw rug):


Meanwhile, Cocoa is HAPPY TO BE HOME - in this picture, she relaxes between Summer and Hershey (click to enlarge):


To read Cocoa's own first-hand account of how she was lost and found (as dictated to Pat), go to http://www.vivapets.com/petdiary.php?id=1454&entry=609