Lost cat found 200 miles from home

A 94 year-old Bellevue woman was reunited with her cat Minnie after a 14 year-old Othello boy found it and turned it over to Adams County Pet Rescue.

“Minnie had been missing since last October, Hollie Bean said. “My son adopted her for my mother from the Bellevue Humane Society after she had lost her kitty not long before that. Minnie is a 3 year-old female with a delightful personality and is very friendly — we’re delighted to have her back.”

Hollie said her mother doesn’t get around very well so Hollie’s sister had a cat door installed early on. One mid-October morning Minnie either went out said cat door or got out when someone went outside, and never returned.

“We had only had her couple of weeks and when she went missing we checked back with the humane society,” Hollie said. “She wasn’t wearing a collar, but we knew she had a chip implant that enabled her to be identified if someone had checked for it.”

Minnie was not turned into the animal shelter, but Hollie was able to get pictures of the adoption so she began scouring the nearby neighborhoods hoping someone saw their cat.

“I looked everywhere — called out to her, but I never found her and she didn’t come back home,” Hollie said. “I thought something might have happened to her — my sister had a cat that got grabbed by a raccoon. But then I thought Minnie is friendly enough that someone may have brought her home with them.”

After a month had passed, the family’s hope had begun to wane that Minnie would be found and returned. But all was not lost.

“Two weeks to the date (Feb. 9) I got a call from the Othello Pet Rescue — they sent my son an email as well. They told me they had a kitty there that had been micro-chipped and that it seemed to by my cat,” Hollie said. “Then I said, ‘Oh my gosh she’s been missing since October. Her name is Minnie — oh my gosh we’re so excited somebody found her and was nice enough to turn her in.”’

That someone was a 14 year-old local boy named Andrew.

“I found the cat outside of Othello on Lucy Road. It was wandering around and looked lost,” Andrew said. “I took it to Pet Rescue because I was thinking someone lost their cat and probably wanted it back and I wanted to help them out.” The responsible young man not only turned Minnie into Adams County Pet Rescue, he also went back a few days later to check on her. “I wanted to see if she was alright.”

The mystery of how Minnie ended up 200 miles from home has yet to be solved, but Hollie said she might have an idea how it happened.

“My mom has a mother-in-law apartment downstairs in her house and rents to a guy that has some property east of the mountains,” she said. “His girlfriend has been a bit odd — has some emotional issues — and has at times brought animals over and taken them with them when they went east of the mountains. She may have taken Minnie over there too. I don’t know of any other way she could’ve ended up in Othello?”

With so much time passing in between the time Minnie was lost and then found, Hollie believes “angels had been watching over Minnie, her mom and everyone else while she was missing.”

“I’m sure there’s probably a lot of wild animals — coyotes, raccoons and the like running around the Othello area. We’re so lucky to get her back – my mom is very excited to have her companion back,” Hollie said. “I want to thank the people at Pet Rescue for the nice way we were treated, and the boy who found our Minnie. He even went to the rescue center after he dropped her off just to check on her. That shows a big heart and shows he cares about things.”