About a week before our guests arrived for their visit, we had a stray cat show up on our doorstep.
He didn't look to be in bad shape but when I put some wet food down, he gobbled it up as though he hadn't eaten in days. He went through three cans for breakfast and came back later to eat two cans at lunch.
I had brought a microchip scanner to Ireland to ensure the authorities here would be able to check our cats' chips when we arrived at the airport, and I was able to scan this boy.
I was elated when the scanner found a chip. I can't even imagine how terrible it is when your pet is lost, and I was so excited that I'd be able to reunite this kitty with his family.
I searched through multiple microchip databases online, only to be greeted with the message that no registration could be found. One website told me the name of the chip manufacturer but had no other information. I actually cried, upset that I was so close and yet so far away.
I sent emails to a few local vet offices with a photo and the microchip number, hoping that they had access to a different set of chip databases that would provide the owner information. I also mentioned that I'd read that sometimes the chip manufacturer could tell you which vet clinic got a specific microchip.
All of the responses from the vet clinics were kind and helpful, despite the fact that their searched turned up nothing as well. One of the clinics submitted a traceability request to the chip manufacturer, and I posted the photo on multiple Facebook sites regarding lost/found pets.
A few days later (the day of our Galway trip), someone named Orla reached out to me via Facebook and said she thought this cat might belong to her neighbor, Jenny. I was able to connect with Jenny via Facebook messenger as well so late Tuesday night, after we got home from our Galway excursion, I was trading fast and furious messages with these two gals.
I asked Jenny if she could give me the microchip number, so we could confirm this was the correct cat. She didn't have it but said she'd contact the vet first thing on Wednesday morning to get the number.
I had explained to both Jenny and Orla that my mother was visiting so I would be away from the house for long periods of time and wouldn't be around to capture him if he showed up. I said I'd put food out each day before heading out, hoping to entice this cat to continue coming to our window until such time as I was home and could bring him inside.
Wednesday morning, I put food on the windowsills where he had perched, hoping he would show up.
We were getting ready to head for breakfast at the hotel. Eli had his shoes and coat on. I came into the living room to put on my shoes, caught movement from the corner of my eye, and looked over to see this kitty standing on our fence. Norris and Patrick were in the kitchen so I closed the living room door and opened the window, calling to the cat.
He made his way over and came into the house like he owned the place. Gobbled up the food I brought in from the windowsill, dug around in the toy bin, rubbed on furniture, used the scratching pad, and very calmly explored the room.
I didn't have Jenny's number, but I was able to reach her on Facebook messenger. It was around 8:30 a.m. at this time. We told Mom and Barb to have breakfast without us because we had a feeling we were going to be busy with this kitty.
Jenny's vet didn't open until 9 a.m. but I was fairly sure this was her cat. She said she didn't drive, so she was trying to find someone to bring her to our house. We don't have a car; otherwise, we would've been on our way immediately.
While messaging Jenny, I learned that this kitty (named Yaya) had been missing for two weeks and that her young son, who is autistic, had been nearly inconsolable because his friend was gone and he didn't understand.
Eli and I didn't talk about it much before deciding to get a taxi and get this kitty back to his family. I couldn't bear the thought of this little boy being without his furry friend one more minute.
Kitty was chilling in a box we have turned onto its side. But he became a tasmanian devil when it was time to get into the carrier. I wound up putting on two coats and garden gloves because he wanted to bite, and I wasn't having it.
Eli ordered a taxi. The first driver accepted but then cancelled right away; we assume because he saw the message Eli entered about transporting a cat but it could've been for any reason at all. Another driver accepted the fare, and he was at our door in about five minutes.
I thanked the driver and told him we were on a mission of mercy, explaining that we were returning a lost cat to his family. While we were waiting for a stoplight to change, he pulled up a photo of an adorable fluff of a kitten on his phone and said his daughter had been begging for a kitten so they'd be welcoming this little nugget to their home soon.
When we arrived at our destination, Jenny was sitting on her front steps. She led us into the house, and we opened up the carrier. Yaya hopped out, and she scooped him up for a hug. She took him into the next room to show him to their dog Sandy, who she said was sad because Yaya was his/her playmate.
She said they try to keep Yaya inside but he gets out when they open the windows (windows here don't have screens). Jenny said that he never strays far so she thinks he may've gotten into a vehicle and been transported accidentally to our area, since we're about 11 miles away from her.
She related that her son had a meltdown at school because his classmates were talking about cats, and he shouted that they needed to stop talking about cats because his Yaya was gone.
During our conversation, Yaya was moving unconcernedly around the house, seeming like he was wondering what all the fuss was about. He got up onto a kitchen chair (his favorite resting spot) and lazed there, one leg stretched out over the side.
Jenny wanted to reimburse us for the taxi, but we declined. Instead, I asked her to video the moment her son was reunited with his friend and share that with us, if she felt comfortable in doing so.
We were unfamiliar with the area, so Jenny let us know there was a bus stop across the street and we could take it to The Square, where we could catch transport back toward Dublin.
As we stood waiting for the bus, I looked up to see a rainbow stretching across the sky.
Our carrier folds up so while we rode the bus, we were struggling to get it deconstructed. At one point, Eli said something about opening up the sides. There was a lady sitting next to us who smiled and said "I was going to suggest that."
Eli started searching on his phone for transport options available from The Square, and just as he found out the Red Line LUAS came there, the lady also mentioned we could catch the LUAS, as she discerned from our conversation that we were unfamiliar with the area and trying to figure out our options.
We thanked her for her kindness as we exited the bus, walking over to wait for the Red Line LUAS that would connect us with the Green Line LUAS which would take us back to the hotel.
In the midst of all of this, I emailed the boat tour company to let them know we had to cancel, and I apologized for the last-minute cancellation. [Later that day, I emailed the company to explain exactly WHY we couldn't make the tour. John, the person responding to my email, thanked me for sharing a feel-good story and said he was going to give us a refund - which they didn't have to do considering we cancelled less than 24 hours before our tour time.]
Orla, Jenny's neighbor, offered us tickets to a performance at the Abbey Theater as a thank-you, which I thought was so kind and generous. I've been messaging her a bit since Yaya was returned, and she said she got a message from one of our neighbors who said that Yaya had also been visiting HER and that she'd miss him. This little stinker sure got around!
As with our experience in Galway, there was synchronicity afoot in regards to this story. I happened to post on the Facebook group where I would reach the right person (and there are a LOT of missing/found pet groups). We were moments away from walking out the door Wednesday morning and would've missed seeing Yaya if we'd left any sooner. He visited the one house (ours) where someone had the tools and foresight to scan for a chip and then work to find answers. We got the taxi driver who also had a kitty story to share.
Jenny DID send us the video she took when her son returned home from school on Wednesday. I won't share it here because it involves a kiddo but suffice it to say, he was over the moon to see his friend again.
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