Ken Gold hoped his lost cat would show up one day. But for nine months he hadn\u2019t heard anything.<\/p>\n
Good news finally came to Gold, formerly a resident University Place and now living in Arizona, after someone dropped a stray cat off in February at the Kent Animal Shelter.<\/p>\n
Thanks to a tiny wafer of silicon, shelter staff had good news for the expectant owner.<\/p>\n
The county\u2019s animal-care staff checked the microchip implanted in RV, and eventually tracked down Gold at his new home in Tucson.<\/p>\n
Gold had lost the cat last July just before he moved to Arizona, when the cat had clawed her way out of a carrier just before Gold moved. He hated to leave town without her, but he couldn\u2019t wait any longer, and regretfully left for Arizona.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Gold and RV, his 2-year-old calico, were reunited in Tucson, thanks to a county veterinarian who took the cat with her to Arizona, on a trip she\u2019d already planned, to visit her son.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for RV to warm up to her owner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was wondering if she would remember me,\u201d Gold said in a phone interview from his Tucson home. \u201cAs soon as she saw me, she recognized me. She started licking me and nuzzling me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cat had been found near Federal Way. It was in good condition, but it is unknown how the cat traveled from the Tacoma area to Federal Way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew she could survive on her own,\u201d Gold said.<\/p>\n
RV had never been declawed and lived as an outdoor cat. RV clawed her way out of a carrier just before Gold moved. He hated to leave town without her, but couldn\u2019t stay around any longer.<\/p>\n
In Arizona, Gold bought a boxer puppy, now 8 months old. He expects the dog and cat to get along fine.<\/p>\n
Gold had the foresight to update his contact information with HomeAgain, a paid service that keeps current phone numbers for pet owners that have microchips implanted in their animals and notifies animal shelters and veterinarians in the area where the animal was lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a great example of why it is so important to have two forms of identification on your cat at all times,\u201d said Nancy McKenney, interim manager of the Kent Shelter. \u201cIf your pet wears an ID tag, a license, and has a microchip, the chances of having your pet return home are exponentially greater than if they were wearing just one form of identification or none at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once Kent Shelter staffers located Gold in Arizona, they arranged for RV to be vaccinated and to have a current animal health certificate prepared for transport. Aussie Pet Mobile provided a free bath and grooming, and donated a pet supply gift card to the shelter to buy a cat carrier for the trip.<\/p>\n
Gold, who is retired and lives on disability, also found out from shelter officials that Marilyn Christensen, a King County Animal Control veterinarian, already had planned a trip to Tucson to visit her son. Christensen agreed to transport the cat. Gold met Christensen and his cat March 5 at the Tucson International Airport.<\/p>\n
Reporters from Tucson television stations and newspapers also greeted Gold.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a little overwhelmed by the publicity RV\u2019s return has generated,\u201d Gold said.<\/p>\n
But it turned out to be a feel-good story too hard to ignore.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great,\u201d Gold said. \u201cI\u2019m happy to have her back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ken Gold hoped his lost cat would show up one day. But for nine months he hadn\u2019t heard anything.
\nGood news finally came to Gold, formerly a resident University Place and now living in Arizona, after someone dropped a stray cat off in February at the Kent Animal Shelter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}