(This is a letter from Rohan's people.)
Hi Jackie,
Rohan (from Alameda) HOME safe after 43 days!!
Where to begin??? After Dino and Dot tracked Rohan for that 3.7 mile loop on September 13, my husband and I put more posters up along that route. Four weeks went by with not a single sighting (except for one, which, after an all-night stakeout, turned out to be a different orange cat). Two weekends ago I had a "poster party" and we made an additional 70 fluorescent posters, and have been putting them up every few days. Last weekend, as you know, was the big storm, so we put new ones up on Saturday to replace the older ones.This weekend, after the last round of posters, we got several calls in a row saying that an orange cat had been seen in or around some storm drains about a mile away. It was the exact same neighborhood in which we had done our unsuccessful stake-out, so we assumed that the cat sighted was the look-alike cat we had seen ourselves (they really did look a lot alike). Chris went over to the neighborhood yesterday morning and didn't see anything.Then, last night at 8 pm, Chris got a call from an elderly couple who said they had seen a cat darting in and out of a storm drain in front of their house (about a mile from ours) just a few minutes before. They said that it resembled the cat in the newspaper and on posters they had seen. They asked Chris if he could come over right then, and he did. He didn't expect to find Rohan, but of course we follow up on all leads, so he went just in case. (I was in a meditation class at the time so I missed all of this!).
♫
He went over, stood next to the storm drain, called Rohan's name once, and within seconds he was wrapped around Chris' leg!! Chris picked him up, with no resistance from him, and brought him into the couple's house. They loaned him a cat carrier and he took Rohan home right away. He said hi to the other cats and settled right in. When I got home at 9 pm and opened the door, Rohan was walking across the living room floor toward me. I just sat down and cried. He has lost about 5 pounds but is completely uninjured.He ate three bowls of food, drank a ton of water and then curled up on our bed. I got up a few times in the middle of the night, and he followed me like a little shadow. He has been sticking close by ever since. We're pretty sure that he has been living underground in the storm drain system, which would explain the lack of sightings (and makes sense with the rain flushing him out this week).I can't even tell you how helpful it was that you and your team came out and tracked him. First, it made us feel like we weren't all alone, and gave me the confidence I needed to ask strangers for help. Second, it let us know that he had traveled almost 4 miles in one week, and that we should not restrict our search to the immediate neighborhood. In the end, I think it was the posters that brought him home, but who knows? The posters may have brought about the actual rescue, but we got through the last 6 weeks because of all the people who helped....You, the Missing Pet Partnership website, our petsitter who kept a picture of him in her house and talked to it every day, the animal shelter, our friends and our neighbors, Marta Williams....Needless to say, Rohan is grounded for the rest of his life with no driving privileges! If you are ever in Alameda, please let me know so we can have you (and the dogs) over for dinner, or at least a cup of coffee if you have time. You can meet Rohan in person. Thank you thank you for the incredible work you do.
(This was a separate letter sent to Missing Pet Partnership from Rohan's people.)
Kat & Dogs
Our outdoor-access cat, Rohan, went missing on September 5, 2009 from our home on the island of Alameda, CA. On September 13, we hired a MAR search team (Jackie Phillips and her two dogs, Dino and Dot) to track him. We found Jackie through the Missing Pet Partnership directory of MAR technicians. Jackie and her team (with me in tow) tracked Rohan in a 3.7 mile loop around our house. After 4 hours, we stopped the search around 7 pm. After Jackie and the team left, my husband and I put large fluorescent posters up along that route, designing them exactly as your website suggested. Four weeks went by with no sightings (except for one, which, after an all-night stakeout, turned out to be a different orange cat). I was starting to get discouraged, so I ordered and read Officer Albrecht’s Lost Pet Chronicles for inspiration. Two weekends ago I had a "poster party" and we made an additional 70 fluorescent posters, and have been putting them up every few days. (We also kept up our internet ads, newspaper ads and shelter-checks. ) On the weekend of October 17, we got several calls in a row saying that an orange cat had been seen in the general area identified by Jackie’s search dogs. On October 18 at 8 pm (six weeks after Rohan went missing) my husband got a call from a couple who said they had seen a cat darting in and out of a storm drain in front of their house just a few minutes before. They said that it resembled the cat on posters they had seen. I wasn’t home, but my husband went over with a can of food. He stood next to a storm drain, called Rohan's name once, and within seconds Rohan was wrapped around his leg!! He picked him up and brought him into the couple's house. They loaned him a cat carrier and he took Rohan home right away. Rohan said hi to our other cats and settled right in. When I got home at 9 pm and opened the door (with no knowledge of the evening’s events), he was walking across the living room floor toward me! He has lost about 5 pounds (about a third of his body weight), and seems tired, but is completely uninjured. Seeing him in our living room (after 43 days and nights without him) felt like a miracle. It still does. He ate three bowls of food, drank a ton of water and then curled up on our bed. We're pretty sure that he has been living underground in the island’s drainage system, which would explain the lack of sightings. I can't even tell you how helpful the MPP website was to us. First, it made us feel like we weren't all alone, and gave us the confidence to ask neighbors for help and try different search methods. The MAR search let us know that he had traveled almost 4 miles in the first week, and that we should not restrict our search to our immediate neighborhood. The expertise and support we got from your website put us on the right track and then kept us from giving up ... Which is why Rohan is now snuggling with a blanket surrounded by his family who loves him. Thank you thank you.
(These are the search details.)
Rohan is a three year old orange and white DLH/Maine Coon mix. He is not wearing a collar, but he is microchipped. He is generally friendly with people.
His people had recently moved to their new home, and had kept all four cats inside at first. Then they started to gradually let them outside. Rohan was put outside early in the morning, and that was the last time he was seen. I was called a few days later.
We picked up his track that led down the street block after block after block, which eventually turned into miles and miles around the island of Alameda for several hours. He went through warehouses, through parks, through houses and all over. His track eventually led back to the house and went past it. By this time it was raining and many of the houses were along the waterfront. Many people were not home at this time so we could not check their backyards and under their decks. His person decided to check the area more thoroughly on her own and put up posters and flyers.
See note above for the outcome.
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