When Cupid the cat got lost, instinct led him to a place 24 miles from home and over a year in the past. His memories of kittenhood and cat treats helped guide him to the old neighborhood where his mom first adopted him.
But before his amazing cat story could be told, his family first spent weeks in despair, looking for their beloved cat.
A little more than a month ago, Cupid, a handsome ginger cat, went missing from home. When he didn’t come home for dinner, his mom, India Redman, began to fret. India and her dad, Colin, took to the streets right away, hunting for their lost cat. For days, stretching into weeks, they scoured the neighborhood and social media for signs of Cupid.
A quick response to a missing poster fostered hope, India tells Metro News, “Someone actually saw him while she was sitting outside of her house, three days after he went missing.”
But as cats do, Cupid was already gone even though his family hopped on the tip right away, leaving the search to continue. Days passed until the message came that would eventually reunite cat and mom.
India received a message from a woman reporting a ginger cat near her home. She suspected it might be Cupid, so India “jumped out of bed and phoned her straight away because I was so excited.”
“We had a chat and it was definitely Cupid that she had found.”
But Cupid’s finder, Amy Osbourne, didn’t just live a street or two over from India. No, she lived 24 miles from Cupid’s home!
“I was shocked when she told me she was in Odstock in Wiltshire. He must have gone across rivers and fields to get over there in stealth mode.”
A Wild Twist Thanks to Memories of Kittenhood
When India arrived to pick Cupid up, the neighborhood was familiar, with the cat mom revealing, “He was found two doors down from the house where I’d bought him from.”
India had a theory about what led her kitty boy to his original stomping ground, explaining, “Everyone loves him so much in our house, and he gets attention non-stop, so I reckon that he couldn’t find his way back home here because he got too far away, so then he went somewhere else that was familiar to him.”
“I have a feeling he might have gone there to find the original owners but they had moved, so he went somewhere else that was familiar. I like to think that he must have remembered his birthplace and gone back to his roots for a little trip.”
And while intact male cats have a tendency to roam, Cupid’s 24-mile trek is highly unusual, but not unheard of as cats are highly intelligent creatures with mysterious senses we have yet to understand. Science hasn’t definitely pinpointed what gives cats their incredible sense of navigation. Is it a homing instinct, following magnetic fields, or even something supernatural?
Whatever the reason enabling Cupid to make this journey, his family is happy to have their smudged-eye tabby cat back!
“We’re so glad that he’s back home and safe after his 24 mile journey back to his roots.”
House Arrest
To quell the tomcat roaming instinct, India shared, “We’ve just had him chipped and neutered so he’s on house arrest at the moment, but I’m sure he will be back out soon ready to go on some more adventures.”
With his now empty coin purse, Cupid’s adventures will most likely keep him closer to home so he easily can laze about while sticking close to his family!
H/T: www.metro.co.uk
Feature Image: Courtesy of India Redman via www.bbc.com