Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
REUNITED — Bobbie, a short-haired Tiger cat, was reunited with his owner, Michele Kenney of Houlton after being lost for eight years.
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — Anyone who has ever had a pet run away, knows full well the grief that comes with that loss. But sometimes, they do come back. Just ask Houlton’s Michele Lozier Kenney.
After eight years, Kenney was reunited with her cat, Bobbie, whom she had long since assumed had either been killed in an accident or taken in by another person.
“I was on Facebook one day and saw a photo that the Houlton Humane Society posted of a cat they had taken in and thought he looked an awful lot like Bobbie,” Kenney said. “I just recognized him instantly. I was so excited.”
Kenney explained that she used to live in Caribou and got the cat for her son, Donnie, who was 4 years old at the time. The family moved to Houlton, where they lived for a short time in an apartment on Park Street.
“He really wanted a cat, so my parents went and got him one,” she said.
In August of 2005, Kenney, along with her husband Karter, purchased a new home a short distance away from their apartment. Bobbie, who was one of several cats the family had, seemed to adjust perfectly to the new home, but one day when Kenney let him out, he didn’t come back. One of Kenney’s other cats, Bubba, also did not come home that same night.
Kenney said she scoured the neighborhood for a week searching for the two cats to no avail. Then one day she looked out on their deck and saw Bubba waiting to come in. She continued searching for Bobbie, but was unsuccesful. Now that he is back, she wonders where exactly he has been for the past eight years.
“We don’t get a lot of people reclaiming cats,” said Heather Miller, executive director for the Houlton Humane Society. “Dogs are often reclaimed, but cats, sadly, are not.”
The cat was brought to the shelter on Jan. 10 when a Houlton resident reported a stray cat hanging around his home in the Court Street area. Bobbie had not been a stray cat for very long as he was in very good health, Miller said.
“I invited Michele to come in and see him, and she knew right away that it was her cat,” Miller said. “She called him by name and he came right over to her and got in her arms. He almost acted like he knew her right away.”
Miller said in her long history of working with animals, she had never had an owner reclaim a pet after such a long time. She also encouraged anyone who loses a pet to bring a photo of the animal to the shelter in case it is ever brought in.
“Probably one out of 20 cats ever gets reunited with its owner, and never, ever been that long of a time for them to be reunited,” she said. “This was just such a really good ending, and that’s something we don’t get very often when it comes to lost pets. All of these animals, some how, some way belong to somebody.”
Bobbie now lives in a pet-friendly home and has adjusted quickly to the Kenneys other pets, including three dogs and three other cats.
