Carolyn Stuckey and her two-year-old cat Bello. (Submitted photo/Carolyn Stuckey)

By Derek Cornet

found

The cat came back: Resident traps feline after 43 days

Sep 15, 2022 | 1:38 PM

“The moral of the story is to not give up hope.”

Those are the words of La Ronge resident Carolyn Stuckey, who was recently reunited with her cat Bello after he disappeared for six weeks. She had just moved into a house on Lawton Crescent when Bello, who is an indoor cat and terrified of the outdoors, fell through a broken screen and landed outside.

“He got out after about 10 p.m. at night I assuming and then it started to rain that night and it rained for probably 16 hours pretty hard,” Stuckey said. “I went looking for him by myself the next couple of days after the rain stopped and I couldn’t find him.”

Stuckey delivered flyers to her neighbours, put up posters around town, and offered a $200 reward for his return. To lure the cat back, she also put his litter box on the front step, as well as food and the dirty clothing she had worn during the day.

A nearby resident spotted Bello on his security camera three or four days after he went missing, but then the trail went cold and that was the last confirmed sighting. By that time, she had gotten her hands on a trap and began setting it out in an attempt to catch Bello.

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“I had these traps out and I ended up catching a couple of black and white cats, and the same one three times, so tabby cats and whatever,” Stuckey said. “I always released the cats I caught. There were no sightings.”

In an effort to locate Bello, Stuckey installed a surveillance camera outside her home this past weekend hoping it would catch a glimpse of him. That following night at 2:30 a.m., he appeared at the front step and, the following day, he was caught in the animal trap.

Bello was caught in a trap on Sept. 12. (Submitted photo/Carolyn Stuckey)

Bello had lost a significant amount of weight, but Stuckey noted he was otherwise healthy. She said he’s happy to be home.

“I was trying not to lose hope,” she said, adding she was encouraged by stories about cats coming back after even longer periods of time. “All of my neighbours have stories like that. Their cat was missing for two months. My friend’s cat was actually found eight months later in somebody else’s living room window.”

Stuckey credits the litter box, food and dirty clothing left outside for Bello’s return. She said cats have an excellent sense of smell and leaving those items for him either kept him close or allowed him to find his way home.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno