'It's a miracle': Missing B.C. cat found after almost 7 months far from home

Mucky and his owner Angela Dawn together on Nov. 23, 2023, after being apart since May. (Courtesy: Angela Dawn)

A cat named Mucky has been reunited with his Vancouver Island family after being missing since May.

Mucky’s owner, Angela Dawn, couldn’t believe her eyes when a photo of her pet she hadn’t seen for nearly seven months popped up on social media.

Dawn told CTV News she knew it was him right away because of the unique markings on his face. She called the poster—a Duncan, B.C., woman who runs the Facebook page Finding Felines—right away.

Christi Wright, the animal-lover behind Finding Felines, had been housing Mucky after someone found him in the Mount Prevost area—which is about 35 kilometres of highway away from where Dawn lives in Mill Bay.

Dawn and her daughter finally reunited with Mucky—named after the Hul'q'umi'num word for nosy—earlier this week. She said their pet was a little bit skittish, but he eventually warmed up to them and most importantly, was healthy.

“We hugged him, and we were just so excited to see him because it was just hard to believe,” Dawn recalled. “We were just overjoyed that we were able to actually have our cat come home again.”

Dawn admitted she had given up hope to ever see Mucky again. She circulated missing posters around social media and kept checking with the BC SPCA to see if he turned up, but after about a month, she feared a cougar or other big predator prevalent on the Island had gotten to her cat.

“Then when I saw that picture, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness that’s him!’” Dawn said. “It’s a miracle.”

Exactly how the two-year-old cat ended up so far away from home remains a mystery, but Dawn has a theory.

(Courtesy: Angela Dawn) She said the only explanation she can think of is that Mucky somehow got into her husband’s truck and then jumped out and disappeared when he got to Mount Prevost, where he frequently mountain bikes.

As for how the feline survived on his own in the wild for so long, Dawn learned he had been sneaking through the cat doors of people’s homes under the cover of night, stealing a bite to eat, and escaping.

“He's actually very healthy looking. You’d think he would be starving, but no, he's nice and fluffy,” Dawn added. “(Because) he was going from house to house and stealing food,” she laughed.

Someone finally caught the stealthy cat, and brought him to Wright at Finding Felines, who then kept Mucky and posted on social media to search for his owner.

Dawn said Mucky is doing well now, slowly getting used to being back in his house and back with the family of five. “I think he knows he's home, and he's been, you know, sleeping with me and just getting comfortable,” she said.

“He's been living and surviving for, you know, six and a half months on his own. So he'll hiss once in a while, but nothing too bad.”

Dawn said she’s endlessly grateful to Wright, who has made it her life’s passion to reunite as many people with their lost cats as possible. And she’s grateful that after all those days without her furry friend, he’s back home.

“It's a very rare, you know, occurrence, I guess to have a cat return after so long. So we're really lucky.”