Lost cat makes incredible 190-mile journey home

wpbf.com ^ | Jan 07, 2013 | Terri Parker

[BerryDingle]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —The last time Jacob and Bonnie Richter saw their 4-year-old tortoiseshell cat Holly, she bolted out of their motor home at the Daytona International Speedway on Nov. 4, apparently frightened by fireworks.

For days, the distraught couple searched for Holly, putting up flyers and alerting rescue agencies before despondently heading home to West Palm Beach.

There was a brief glimmer of hope two weeks later when a rescue group spotted the distinctive cat outside of a Daytona Beach restaurant which fed feral cats.

But before the Richters could drive there, Holly had disappeared.

Then she showed up, skin and bones, paws rubbed raw and too exhausted to meow, in Barb Mazzola's Palm Beach Gardens yard.

"She was pitiful. She just stood there, ready to collapse," said Mazzola, who rushed to the store for cat food and began feeding the cat she named Cosette.

In a week, Holly was well enough to walk inside. Mazzola coaxed her into a cat carrier and took her to the vet, where she was scanned for a microchip.

The chip came back to match the Richters, who got a call from the pet tracing agency Saturday.

The couple couldn't believe it. Holly had traveled about 190 miles in 62 days.

Since Holly was an inside cat, they had no idea how she found her way, ending up less than a mile from home.

"It was quite a journey for this little girl," said Jacob Richter, holding his cat to his chest and breaking into tears. "We just can't believe she came home."

[Lazamataz]

New Jersey is like New York: Utterly insane.

[Gefn]

I know. I wish I could move my parents somewhere else but they are stubborn folks. They want to stay here. ;(

I could get a house for what I’m paying to rent a studio apartment- and have more than one cat. Maybe even a dog!

[Hot Tabasco]

People stop and ask how we get them to follow us.

Filling your pockets with tuna fish helps.......

[Slings and Arrows]

I suspect that the motivation is revenue collection rather than safety.

[Arrowhead1952]

Filling your pockets with tuna fish helps.......

No need for that, but they do get tuna snacks every evening. Mama cat also loves one or two shrimp now and then.

[Spktyr]

That’s the question, of course. :P

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

I have never seen a cat make that face before!

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

I’ve never seen a Tortoise shell cat before.

[Daffynition]

Whats the difference between a calico cat and a tortoiseshell cat?

A calico-colored cat is a white-based cat that has large splotches of black and large splotches of orange that don't intermingle. Black, orange, and white are all (for the most part) separate.

A tortoiseshell-colored cat has black and orange mixed in together, in a brindle-type pattern. The majority have a 'split' nose....black on one side and orange on the other. They can also have white on them....but that makes them torti and white, not calico.

Some cats couldn't 'decide' which they wanted to be, lol....and end up with some calico-colored body parts, and some torti-colored body parts.

The situation is further complicated when you have torti and tabby markings (stripes) at the same time. We call that a 'torbi.'

I confuse the two.