Cat lost for ten years - found!

[gini]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nati...t-Returns.htmlDon't use this link

I thought you all would love this story.

GO TO REDHEDD'S POST BELOW......THE WHOLE STORY IS PRINTED OUT

[slick]

It wants me to log in and sign up for an account.

[RedHedd]

I posted this story earlier -- Ted's Excellent Adventure:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic.../25/MN28129.DTL

[aly]

Could somebody copy and paste the text of the story? It wants me to create an account. Thanks!

[RedHedd]

Thursday, September 25, 2003 (SF Chronicle)
TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE/Implanted microchip reunites wandering cat with man whose heart he broke 10 years before
Patricia Yollin, Chronicle Staff Writer


Chris Inglis took Wednesday off so he could hang around the house and play
with his cat. After all, the cat had come back -- 10 years later.
Ted, the feline Inglis named after a character in "Bill & Ted's Excellent
Adventure," completed an amazing adventure of his own when he was reunited
with his owner a decade after vanishing from his Burlingame home.
Someone found Ted last week on El Camino Real in Atherton, about 13 miles
south of where he used to live. The cat was brought to the Peninsula
Humane Society's animal shelter, which tracked down his owner using a
microchip that Inglis had gotten implanted in Ted.
"It's pretty monumental," Inglis, 44, said. "I can't get my mind around
it. It's almost surreal."
When Inglis and Ted started co-habitating, Inglis was divorced, renting a
one-bedroom Burlingame duplex, teaching high school in South San Francisco
and driving an old Honda Civic. Now he's married, with a four-bedroom
house in San Carlos, a job as a financial planner in Redwood City, two
daughters at home and a son in college. And he drives a Mercedes-Benz.
And Ted? He hasn't changed much at all.
"He's still a long, stringy black cat with a tail," said Inglis' wife,
Carolyn, 42.
When Chris Inglis acquired Ted in 1991, he took in a litter mate as well.
Their names were inspired by the 1989 movie that is still in Inglis' top
10. But they didn't get along, so Bill left, and Ted stayed on.
"We were both kind of independent," Inglis said. "He'd have his own window
to come and go, but he'd sleep on my water bed every night."
One of the things they liked to do together was cruise around in Inglis'
car. While Inglis was at work, Ted would frequent a dentist's waiting room
a block away. When Inglis drove by and yelled for him, he'd race along a
fence and jump into his car.
BACK TO THE DENTIST'S
In summer 1993, Inglis and his new wife bought a house in Burlingame,
close to his old place. After a few weeks, Ted ran away. They found him at
the dental office.
Inglis had the microchip with his ID info implanted between Ted's shoulder
blades. But one day, Ted disappeared again through an upstairs window. And
the chip didn't do any good -- at least not right away.
"I was heartbroken," Inglis said. "I spent six months looking for him."
He put up posters, called the pound, went door-to-door, checked in at the
dentist's. Nothing. Finally, he gave up, though he always figured Ted was
alive.
"He was too smart to get hurt," Inglis said.
Then, last week, he got two messages on his voice mail from the humane
society, saying his cat had been found. Inglis assumed it was a wrong
number. After all, his cat of two years, a 25-pounder named Max, was at
home.
PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF
But the humane society kept trying, and at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, his
assistant interrupted a business meeting to give him the news that Ted,
now 12,
had shown up.
Fifteen minutes later, Inglis was at the shelter's San Mateo office.
"He was curled up in a box," Inglis said. "He rubbed his face on my hand,
climbed right up and started purring."
Inglis was certain Ted recognized him.
"We spent a lot of time together," he said.
And when Inglis let Ted loose in his car, "he put his front paws on the
dashboard," just like the old days.
Exactly where Ted has been all these years is a mystery, but it seems
clear someone was tending to him.
"Ted was happy, friendly and your basic lap cat," said Malu Trehan,
outreach coordinator at the Peninsula Humane Society. "And he looked well
cared for."
9 PERCENT SUCCESS RATE
Kat Brown, deputy director at San Francisco's Department of Animal Care
and Control, called the reunion "a testament to microchip technology,"
which is about a decade old.
The recovery rate for missing microchipped pets statewide is 9 percent,
said Bill Hamilton, president of Friends of San Francisco Animal Care and
Control. Nationally, he added, about 10 million pets were lost last year
-- 1, 939,817 carried chips, and 157,423 of them were found.
And now Ted, with his excellent adventure, is both a statistic and an
amazing animal story.
Carolyn Inglis worries about how Ted will get along with Max, Audie the
dog,
and their geckos and crayfish. Her husband just hopes Ted's wandering days
are over.
"I've been holding him all day," Inglis said. "But he really wants to go
out."

[gini]

RedHedd, thanks for posting the story. I walked away from the computer to do other work, and didn't realize what had happened.

[dukedogsmom]

What a very lucky cat! I can't believe he's still alive. I hope he lives a lot longer so they can spend a lot of time together.

[moosmom]

10 years????????

All I can say is.................

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[krazyaboutkatz]

Wow! This is amazing. I'm so glad he's finally home again.

[Tonya]

That's so cool!

[todd]

wow that is great.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Last night the news did a story about the man and the cat. The cat is a beautiful black cat and he sure doesn't look his age.

[Cataholic]

How totally COOL!

[cloverfdx]

wow 10 years that is amazing.

that is one lucky cat

[RedHedd]

He's a local San Francisco Bay Area cat and was on the local news last night .... I love happy endings!