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Month-Long Cat Disappearance Ends at the Beginning

A terrifying, month-long adventure by a beloved family cat led from Guilford to a storm drain on the side of the interstate and then all the way back to the shelter where the frightened feline was originally rescued 14 years ago. It all ended happily when he was reunited with his owners last week.

Sonny, an indoor cat, somehow escaped his home near Guilford Lakes Elementary School in early July while his family was preoccupied with a medical emergency involving their dog, according to Virgina Van Norden of Forgotten Felines in Clinton, the shelter where Sonny was cared for as a kitten, and where he would eventually be recovered by his family.

Weeks later, one of Forgotten Felines’ volunteers, Jim Schmaltz, was driving along I-95 near Guilford and spied a black cat cowering near the center median. Schmaltz was able to pull over and safely corral the cat into his car, Van Norden said—a feat of real courage and skill with cars speeding past just a few feet away—and bring him to Pieper Veterinary in Madison.

Likely, no one will ever know exactly what happened during the long days and nights between his escape and rescue, Van Norden said. Sonny had suffered what she described as “road rash,” with claws almost entirely worn down and abrasions on his paws and lips.

Possibly Sonny had been struck by a car, or even ejected from a moving vehicle, Van Norden said.

“We’ll never understand, but it seemed like he propelled forward and just completely scraped his body,” she said.

Sonny was treated both in Madison and Killingworth, recovering well, Van Norden said, before he was brought to Forgotten Felines and listed as a lost cat in local newspapers, including the Guilford Courier, where his family immediately recognized him.

“Whenever we [advertise] with a black cat, everyone calls and says ‘That’s my cat,’” Van Norden said. “We had three people call and say ‘I’m sure this is my cat.’ But the owners sent us a picture, and it was incredible. It just matched, it really seemed to match.”

Describing a tooth that Sonny was missing among other details, Alyson Canestri and the rest of Sonny’s family rushed over Forgotten Felines to reunite with him, having made the same trip more than 14 years ago when they first brought Sonny into their family.

“I recognized the name. I went out to the shed and found the contract, and sure enough they’d adopted him 14 years ago as a kitten,” Van Norden said.

Van Norden said when Canestri saw Sonny through the window, she “doubled-over.”

“Just literally [started] sobbing, just saying, ‘That’s Sonny, that’s him, that’s him!’ so I went and got her…[Canestri] was just hysterical, could not believe it,” Van Norden said. “She knew without a doubt that it was Sonny.”

Canestri could not be reached for comment at press time.

Recovering happily at home with no serious complications from his injuries, Sonny is by all appearances now, happy and comfortable back at home.

“I don’t know how his emotional trauma is, but...he’s back home...he’s settled right in,” Van Norden said. “We’ve had some weird stories, but this is really a good one.”