Lost cat reunited with owner months later

We often hear heartwarming stories of how pets, separated from their owners and families, often become reunited due to micro-chipping; and even when an animal miraculously finds its way home. For one local family in Tioga County, N.Y. affected by the September 2011 flooding, the reuniting of one of their cats that got lost during the evacuation process had a blissful return home last Saturday.
Ozzie, a gray colored cat, sat peering out of a cage last week, not understanding what had just happened. When the door opened at the home of Nancy Brown, a local woman who spends her time rescuing animals, Michelle Anders and her daughters MacKenzie and Maddison could not believe their eyes. It was Ozzie, who had been missing for several months in spite of an ambitious effort to find him.
Brown had received a call last week from a woman living in a trailer park located miles from Anders’ home. The woman told Brown that a cat had been hanging around for quite some time, and that she couldn’t keep him.
Brown, who is familiar with this process, took a crate to the trailer park and soon returned the cat to her home, where close to another dozen cats were already being housed temporarily.
But this cat was different.
During the flooding in September, Anders’ home received approximately five feet of water, and her animals needed to be evacuated. Loading the cats in a crate and placing it in the back of her father’s truck, Anders sent her cats safely down the road where they would remain at her father’s until she could return home.
But the crate, unknown to Anders, had a hole small enough for the panicked animals to escape. Ozzie and Sofie, two of Anders’ three cats in the truck, escaped and weren’t seen again.
Anders immediately began a campaign to find her cats that included posters and postings on Facebook and Craig’s List. Photos were also run in local newspapers of the missing cats.
Brown recognized Ozzie as being one of Anders’ cats once she got him to her home, and immediately called her.
When Anders went to Brown’s home and looked at the cat she said, “Ozzie?” She then exclaimed, “Ozzie!” It was her cat who had been missing for over four months.
According to Anders, Ozzie came right over to her and her daughters, and was then packed up and taken home where she is now recovering from her journey.
But still missing, according to Anders, is her cat Sofie. It is hoped that they will have a similar reunion. Pumpkin, the third cat on the truck, found her way home.

Rescuing her animals from the flood

Anders had quite a story to tell of her attempts to evacuate her animals safely. With six cats, two dogs, two cockatiels, 14 chickens and four rabbits, when the flood waters rose there was little time to think about the process.
Anders, a single mother with two young daughters, lives nearby a creek in Tioga County, N.Y. that overflowed during Tropical Storm Lee.
Anders described leaving her home on Wednesday evening when flood warnings were issued for her area. Traveling to the VFW in Owego, N.Y., Anders left with her two children just to be safe. During the last major flood, Anders’ first floor was safe from flooding, so she was not very concerned.
But Anders forgot her phone charger and had to return home at midnight. This trip home, she noted, saved the lives of most of her animals.
By the time she returned home, the water had risen to her hips in the back yard. Anders immediately gathered her chickens and rabbits and placed them in cages on the kitchen table inside her home. She also grabbed her dogs and placed her cats on the second floor.
Unfortunately, Anders would note later, they thought they had their cat Stella — but they didn’t. Stella was found weeks after the flood underneath a porch. She succumbed to the flooding.
Quickly returning to the VFW, Anders’ family was soon moved to a shelter that was set up at Abide in the Vine.

Returning home after the storm

On Thursday, Anders made another trip back home, but this time by boat. According to Anders, local residents Tom Donovan and a gentleman named Mugsy assisted. She also received help from the Kronks.
By the time she reached her home, the nearby creek was running through her back yard. The water measured close to five feet in her home, and up to eight feet in some areas.
Peering through the window in her home, Anders saw the chickens and rabbits she had placed on her table — the water now up to their necks.
Wading through water that was chest high, Anders began grabbing her rabbits and throwing them in the boat. She next grabbed her chickens and did the same thing.
“I just kept grabbing chickens,” said Anders.
She then heard her cat Sofie, who was up on top of a counter, and put her upstairs.
Proceeding to the end of the road by boat, with chickens and rabbits in and out of cages, Anders noted that people were watching. “I just kept hollering for help,” Anders added.
Her father met her at the end of her street, and Anders recalled telling him, “The house is gone ... it’s gone ...”
On Friday, Anders went back home and gathered all of her cats to put in a crate except for Stella, who she could not find, and Benny, who was hiding somewhere in the home.
With good intentions, her father began to transport the cats to his home temporarily, but only one cat made it, the others escaping out the hole on the crate.

Bringing the animals home

With a two-story home that required gutting throughout the entire first level, and a trail of mud and debris strewn throughout, Anders began to pick up the pieces of her life. It is noted that to date, Anders’ home is still being restored.
With her chickens housed elsewhere until spring, Anders hurried to return her rabbits to their outdoor pen, and to bring her dogs back to someplace familiar. With several cats who remained at home, Anders also began her search for her missing cats.
Fortunately, Anders’ cat Pumpkin returned within two weeks to their home. But Ozzie and Sofie were still missing, as well as Stella, who Anders couldn’t find during the flood.
It was about one month later, right after her grandmother’s death, that Anders observed her cats Pumpkin and Benny meowing and crying near a back porch. By the end of October, Anders began to smell as strange odor coming from under the porch. Her cat Stella had gotten trapped under the porch when the flood waters rose, and couldn’t escape.
“We thought we had them all in,” said Anders of her cat Stella.
As for the others, all are home now except for Sofie, who is still missing. Anders is asking everyone out there to contact her if they have seen Sofie, or know of her whereabouts.

Struggling to get by

For those who weren’t personally affected by the flooding, it is difficult to understand the plight of those who were. Many, who were displaced and their homes damaged, are still trying to rebuild — a process that could take many more months to achieve.
Anders is still living within the tragedy of September’s flooding. With walls torn out and sheetrock going up on her walls, Anders does her dishes out of a sink in her utility room, and the family is primarily living on the second level.
Her children Mackenzie, age 11, and Maddison, age 7, have worked to find some normalcy in their lives.
Maddison’s school was affected by the flooding, and the students have been temporarily displaced and bussed, daily, to a school approximately 20 miles away.
“It’s hard,” Maddison said. “The bus ride is very long,” she added. “We’re the first to be picked up and the last to come home.” This adjustment for Maddison has been made even more difficult as her flooded school is located directly behind her home.
Anders is also struggling to get by and care for her children. With bills continuing to pile up, Anders is hopeful to get her life in order enough so that she can get out and find additional work that will bring money into her home.
But the bright spot in their life, most recently, is the return home of their beloved Ozzie, and the hopes that Sofie will be soon reunited with them as well.
If anyone has seen Sofie, they can contact Anders by calling (607) 744-7026.

Networking and the rescue efforts

Since Anders’ cats were reported missing on Sept. 9, 2011, she received several calls, but none provided significant leads.
Working with Anders to assist is a local woman named Nancy Brown, who has undertaken the efforts of assisting pets in peril under the guise of “Maddie’s Meadows,” a name she derived from her rescue dog Maddie.
Working tirelessly, and without any consistent funding, Brown has helped out 93 cats, adopted or fostered approximately 55, and returned 18 to a managed feral cat colony after spay or neuter. She has also helped return several dogs to their owners, rescued raccoons, squirrels, and even a large snapping turtle.
Brown networks with the local paper in Owego to communicate missing or lost pets, and also communicates on Facebook.
Because of Brown’s efforts, cats such as Ozzie have been returned to their homes. For others rescued by Brown, there is no home to return to as animals have been abandoned, or were the result of pregnant cats living in a feral community.
Either way, Brown keeps helping animals, and attributes the reuniting of pets, such as with Anders, to her continued efforts.
If you would like to learn more about Maddie’s Meadows, you can contact Brown by calling (607) 768-6575.