Sitting up in bed, eyes still only semi-focused as I wake to the world, I was doing my usual trawl through social media: a run-down of Twitter for national news but risking my blood pressure if I stick with it for too long, followed by some Facebook for the local stuff and news of friends. Scrolling through my FB timeline I noticed a post from Bolton and Bury Lost & Found Cats. Having four cats ourselves and having had two of them go missing within the last two or three years, I have remained a member of sites where I posted appeals for people to look out for them when they were on their adventures (both returned unharmed and pretty much unperturbed: we were the ones suffering), so I still see posts from them. The post that caught my eye was actually a share of a post from the Chester Last & Found Cats FB page. No idea why it caught my eye, but I read through the post. It said a cat had been found hanging round Morrisons in Chester and, when they had sanned it for a chip, they had been able to find that the details were out of date in terms of phone numbers and address, but they could tell that the cat was from Bolton and she was called Mouse. Accompanying the post were a series of four pictures of a white-footed grey tabby cat. Now, I have a former work colleague that we have had two cats from: one of his cats had kittens and we took one of then which is Misty, our grey and white girl who has now been with us for eleven years. The other was an older cat, Hobbes, our three-legged giant who had five good years with us after he was rescued from being put to sleep by an owner who'd obviously grown tired of him. Now, I could recall that one of Mike's cats at the time we picked up Misty was a grey tabby called Mouse. I couldn't recall specific details of her colouring so the photos in the post meant little to me, but the fact the cat was called Mouse and she was from Bolton... I found myself thinking "What are the chances?". How likely was it that Mouse was still alive, and, if she was, had gone missing from Mike's place? How many cats in Bolton that are grey tabbies are missing and called Mouse? I also fretted a bit about how to broach the subject with Mike: suppose she had recently died and he was still grieving? Or Mouse had gone with his ex-partner when they split up and he knew nothing about her life after that? I decided that I had to raise the question with Mike, so I sent a question to him on Messenger: "Hi Mike, an odd question after not seeing you for so long, but do you still have Mouse?". When his reply came, it actually made my heart jump a little because he told me that a couple of months back he had let her out as he usually did and he'd not seen her since and noting it was completely unlike her to not come back. He assumed the worst and that she might have passed away. So, Mouse was missing! The Chester bit still didn't make sense, but firstly, I still needed to confirm the Mouse in the FB post was Mike's. I sent him one of the pictures. Almost at once he came back to me: "OMG. That's her!"
In order to be able to get some more information from the people who were now looking after Mouse, Mike said he was joining the Chester Lost & Found Cats FB page. First, he had to wait to be approved, then he had to wait until he could post and ask his questions. Finally, he was able to start having a bit of a conversation with the people who had Mouse. I didn't hear anything for a while and then Mike came back to me with the best bit of the story: how Mouse ended up in Chester. Someone else had seen the posts about Mouse and had seen that Mike was, potentially, her owner. He sent Mike a message saying this: "Hi, I work for Morrisons in Harwood, Bolton and your cat Mouse has been living in the yard. We've fed and watered her three times a day for around three weeks until she disappeared last Saturday. We think she might have snuck onto the back of the waggon that delivered to us that day as the next drop was Chester". Mouse had obviously climbed out at Chester, recognised a Morrisons yard as somewhere that she got well looked after and decided to hang around there!
With a little more discussion between Mike and the people looking after Mouse, the timeline was now established and Mike was certified as the person to whom Mouse should be returned. She had actually moved on from Chester, as the people taking care of her were in Flint, so Mike got a grand trip out to North Wales when he went to pick her up that afternoon. Mike and Mouse were reunited! Instead of just reading a feelgood story that day, I got to be part of it. I know how bad we felt when ours went on their walkabouts: not knowing what happened, no way of knowing if they are alive or dead, is absolutely awful. Equally, I know just how good it feels when they come back into your life: you are absolutely ecstatic (although the cat is completely oblivious to your relief and delight). To help someone have that wonderful feeling on a nondescript Tuesday in the midst of these blighted times gave me a nice feeling too. Welcome back Mouse!
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