Cowboy, Ms Thompson’s 11-year-old, black and white cat, went missing Sunday, June 20, when the Thompsons stopped at the Exit 10 Mobil Station, as they traveled back to Virginia from Maine.

“Cowboy has been traveling back and forth to Canada and Maine with us for about five years,” said Ms Thompson. “He hates his carrier, so he has been riding loose in the car for years now,” she said.

She believes that the indoor/outdoor cat may have thought they had reached their final destination when he decided to leap from the car. “I have eight other cats and have rescued dozens from around my office,” Ms Thompson said, “but Cowboy is not one of those. He’s such a special cat.”

Once a feral cat abandoned by his family, a client of Ms Thompson’s knew that Cowboy was actually the sibling to another cat that she had adopted a year earlier. “He was a neighbor of the woman who had died, who had owned them, and he wanted to reunite the brother cats, so I said okay,” she said.

Cowboy was not at all a friendly cat when she adopted him, recalled Ms Thompson, but with some gentle persuasion on her part, the cat warmed up to her and the two bonded. “I was so upset the day he disappeared. I cried and cried,” she said. The couple and employees from the Blue Colony Diner and the Mobil Station searched for Cowboy for more than two hours, but eventually it was time to move on.

Back in Virginia the next morning, she contacted Newtown Animal Control Officer Carolee Mason, went on the Internet to find any Newtown animal rescue groups, and even called a pet detective in Pennsylvania, who told her they would need an actual sighting before they could help. With the help of Monica Roberto of The Animal Center in Newtown and Ms Mason, she was able to get word out that her cat was missing.

A week later, with still no sighting, she returned to Newtown to search the area where she suspected her cat might be. She was put in touch with Karlyn Sturmer, a longtime animal rescue volunteer. Ms Sturmer has taken a break from animal rescue in recent years, but realized this was a special case. They put up posters, and Ms Sturmer advised on where to put out food and water.

“I was very familiar with that area because it is right where my dog, Blue, was found a few years ago,” said Ms Sturmer. Blue is a sheltie that spent three years on her own in the woods near Commerce Road before Ms Sturmer was able to trap her. The dog now resides with Ms Sturmer.

“Luckily,” said Ms Sturmer, “that area is one where I did feel a cat could survive. There’s no real evidence of coyotes, for one thing. We really needed a sighting, though, and it’s not a residential area, so that’s hard. After six and a half weeks, you begin to wonder…. But I always tell people, ‘Don’t give up.’”

When Ms Thompson returned to Virginia on June 29, she said, her heart was somewhat lighter, knowing that she had put a plan into action. “There were all of these people doing something for me here, that I couldn’t do [from Virginia],” she said. Then it was a waiting game.

That game ended when Ms Thompson received a call on Saturday, July 31, from Fred Arther of Newtown. He and his 11-year-old son, Kevin, and family had been driving down Church Hill Road that morning when Kevin saw a cat at the roadside.

“I saw what looked like a stray cat, and then I saw a sign with the picture and looked closely. I saw it had black on the tail and a lot of details like that cat I had seen,” Kevin said.

His father and mother, Fred and Mary Arther, were not so sure, but turned around and went back to take a look at the cat, still crouched by the road. “I thought the poster showed a white cat, but Kevin was certain about what he had seen,” said his father. “He has a sharp eye, and always spots everything, everywhere we go,” Mr Arther said.

The Arthers contacted Ms Sturmer, who asked them to stay with the cat, if they could. They followed Cowboy, discovering a number of abandoned houses nearby, likely hiding places for strays.

“I followed him up by the tracks and the lady from the animal rescue [Karlyn Sturmer] came and tried to take a picture when we saw him. But it ran,” said Kevin.

The Arthers felt fairly sure it was Cowboy, and contacted Ms Thompson. “She was very excited,” said Mr Arther, and said she was coming right up.

“I love animals,” Kevin said, “and when we were talking with the lady who owned the cat, she was so sad. I just felt the same. I didn’t want to give up looking.”

The Arthers continued to search on and off during the weekend, to no avail. On Monday, Kevin left on vacation to New Hampshire, still wondering the cat’s fate.

Meanwhile, Ms Thompson arrived with a friend to stake out the site where Cowboy had been sighted. “I knew if I could see him, I could get him,” she said. She identified an area of high grass near the railroad tracks as a likely spot for the cat to hide out. The police asked her to leave, however, so she sized up a nearby business owned by Tom Baum, asked him permission to park her car there and look for the cat, and on Monday evening got down to business.

“I went up the bank and started calling his name and ‘meowing’ to him,” said Ms Thompson, the way that she and the cat communicated at home. She heard a reply, meowed again, and then lay down in the long grass and began to belly-crawl, spreading wide the blades of grass. “Then all of a sudden I could see him,” Ms Thompson said. “I meowed and whistled, and he came to me.”

Then it was a quick grab and a mad dash back to the car where Cowboy was safely deposited into a crate in the back seat. A somewhat bedraggled Cowboy arrived home Tuesday night with his ecstatic owner. “He has a few scratches, he’s a little dehydrated, and he has lost a lot of weight, but he’s in better shape than I expected,” reported Ms Thompson on Wednesday, August 4. “He went outside with me today, but he didn’t want to leave my side. He’s thrilled to be home,” she said.

“It’s a very happy ending,” said Ms Sturmer, “and we’re glad for them.”

The Arthers were pleased to hear that Cowboy had been found. “It’s wonderful,” said Mr Arther. “Kevin deserves all of the credit. He was certain it was Cowboy, and he loves to help people and do this kind of thing.” The adventure was all of the reward that Kevin wanted, said Mr Arther, even though Ms Thompson offered him a monetary reward.

Calling from New Hampshire Thursday morning, Kevin was very excited to know that his efforts had paid off. “I’m so glad that Cowboy is back with his owner. I could tell how much she missed her cat,” he said.

Ms Thompson offered a special thank you to the Arthers, as well as Ms Sturmer and Ms Roberto. “I also want to thank Cathy from Newtown Car Care, who put out food; all the cashiers from the Mobil Station and the diner; Tom Baum; all of the businesses that let me put up a poster; Carolee Mason; and the whole Newtown community,” said Ms Thompson. “All of these people are the nicest people to have helped me.”