From Zelda's owner

When Zelda didn't turn up that night to sleep on her side of the bed, I had to face the horror that she was missing. As she has never strayed, I assumed that this was it, Zelda was gone and she was never coming back, for what ever reason I will never know.

I went to all my close neighbours, no one had seen her. Close friends and flatmates sympathised with me and told me to put out flyers and not to give up, not yet anyway.  

That weekend I sat at home miserable, waiting and hoping that Zelda would turn up. Soon everyone was out looking for her, friends, neighbours, flatmates. For those who knew Zelda, she was a cat which left an impression when you meet her.  One friend had also kindly offered a reward, I was touched, that was how much zelda had meant to him.

Early Tuesday morning, I was woken up by a phone call by someone working in the industrial area in Stoddard Road, the guy had told me that a woman working in their office just drove past a cat lying in the gutters on Richardson Rd (my street) and suggested that I should go and  take a look.  

I climbed out of bed, dressed, went to get a plastic bag and gloves and prepared myself for the worst. But when I got there, I couldnt find it, I called the guy back and he went to have a look himself and told me that perhaps someone had already picked it up.  So as I was ready to go and knock on some doors to find out if they have seen or taken a dead cat off the road that morning, my phone rang again.  

This time it was another guy who had seen my lost cat ad on the petsonthenet website. Steve - the guy's name, said that, since Saturday a oriental chocolate burmese without a collar had been hanging around his place.  He had lived on Shorwell Rd off Sandringham Rd, which was a good 10 minutes car drive from my place.  His house was backed onto a park and Edendale school, he had seen Zelda leaning against his fence on the park side, and so started to be friendly. How she had gotten there, is still a mystery.  For the next few days, she was determined to hang around his house wanting him to be his new owner.  He did not feed her thinking that she had lived near by and would soon return home.  By tuesday he decided that maybe she was a lost cat.  hence went on the site at petsonthenet, and sure enough there was my ad with a picture of Zelda.

I raced over to his place, nearly certain that it was Zelda due to the way that he had described her.  I looked around Steve's house but no Zelda, so I called Steve back. Steve told me to turn my car radio on loud and that usually always gets Zelda to turn up from where ever she was.  This was not unusual as Zelda was use to the idea of cars arriving at home and knew that someone would be home to let her inside, for food and affection.  So I turned the music up, waited 10mins and walked over the fence to call out for Zelda, and sure enough I see this gaunt looking cat resembling a lot like Zelda. 

As soon as she saw me, she started to meow back. I was overwhelmed with joy. I saw her left weeping eye (which was a trait of hers) and I was certain that it was Zelda. 

I rang my friend who had offered the reward, he was overwhelmed with disbelief., and grateful that Steve had made the effort to try and find Zelda’s owner. I guess my friends were right to tell me not to give up.  left a box of chocolate for Steve anyway, since he was not interested in the reward that we had offered. 

Thanks Steve, cat and owner are very happy.

Lang and Zelda

From the Finders...

Well she found us on Shorwell Street in Sandringham .  My boyfriend’s house backs onto the park.  Zelda turned up on Friday night while there were a large group of us over for a bbq and she was so cute she got cuddles from some of the crowd.  Then we found she didn’t want to leave; she hung out with us all weekend meowing very loudly outside the window when we went to bed.  

By Sunday night we thought that we would wait to see if she was still around on Monday before we did something (thinking maybe her owners went away for the weekend) but come Monday morning there she was looking pitifully through the window at us.  

Steve, my boyfriend’s flatmate found your site and emailed me with the link from your site asking if I thought that the picture looked like our new little friend (owning 2 chocolate Burmese myself, I was the resident expert).  I emailed him back confirming it was certainly our mate so he called the owner who promptly went around to the house to try and find her.  

The owner then called Steve back saying she couldn’t find her so Steve suggested she open her car down and turn up the stereo to make as much noise as she could (well that’s how we attracted her at our bbq on Friday heehee).  Hey presto who comes running to see what all the noise is about but Zelda (meowing her head off of course J).  Not too sure how long Zelda was missing for but she did look a bit skinny when she found us.

So thanks to Steve and your site the result was a happy one!!  Steve received a big pat on the back from all of us for taking the time to reunite fur-kid and owner that’s for sure – Yay Steve!!!!  And Yay petsonthenet!!!  Feel free to publish the story.

Amanda
Auckland