Missing Alberta feline turns up here

The cat really does come back, at least to one Peace River, Alta. family, even after making the journey north.

The cat really does come back, at least to one Peace River, Alta. family, even after making the journey north.

Jennifer McGillivray and her daughter, Brittany, live in the community six hours northwest of Edmonton.

Early this week, they received a surprise call from Whitehorse city bylaw officer Ken Milne to let them know the city had their cat, Weezie.

“I was just totally shocked,” Jennifer said in an interview Tuesday from her Alberta home.

Weezie had gone missing about eight months earlier. An outdoor cat, Weezie usually came home at the end of the day to stay inside overnight.

Initially, Brittany thought Weezie would eventually find her way home, or the pound in Peace River would call if they found her, as they had one time before. However, after a week, it seemed clear that Weezie wasn’t coming home.

Jennifer recalled her daughter crying for days after, and, as time passed, the family decided to adopt another cat – Ava, now about a year old.

Weezie is really the only one who knows the full story of how she somehow found her way up to Whitehorse and eventually hanging around the Barracks apartments in Takhini, where a kind resident eventually gave her some food and called the bylaw about her.

It seems in the eight months since she disappeared, Weezie hasn’t lost her trust in humanity. When the bylaw officer went to pick her up, she wasn’t hesitant in approaching the officer, happily jumping into the vehicle with him.

“It’s a nice cat,” Milne said, adding she does seem to need attention, meowing often to let staff at the pound know she’s there.

After the officer brought Weezie to the shelter, Milne checked for identification.

“This one happened to be microchiped,” he said. When he checked the information, he thought the 85th Avenue address must have been a mistake for Eighth Avenue in Whitehorse.

But no, as he looked into it further, he learned the address was that of the McGillivray residence in Peace River, and he was soon delivering the good news to the family.

“She was shocked,” Milne said, recalling his discussion with Jennifer. She asked how Weezie was doing, where Whitehorse is, how far that is from Peace River and how Weezie came to be staying around an apartment building in the territory’s capital.

Based on his past experience, Milne suspects the cat may have been picked up by a person or people who were headed north.

In any case, the bylaw officer was quick to point out, the situation that will see a cat returned to its rightful owner serves as a prime example of why its so important to license or microchip a pet.

For the McGillivrays, the challange now will be to reunite with Weezie. Earlier this week, Jennifer was considering taking the long weekend, possibly with Brittany and one of her friends, to drive to Whitehorse to bring the feline home.

As she pointed out, the family cat got to visit the Yukon before they did.

Other options, such as seeing if anyone is heading down to Alberta from Whitehorse and is willing to take the cat along for the ride, are up for consideration as well.

While anxiously awaiting their reunion with Weezie, the family is also wondering what will be in store when the adventurous black cat arrives back home to find another cat in the house.

Neither Weezie, nor Ava, their younger cat, are known for liking other felines, Brittany said.

“We spoil our pets so much,” she said, noting the jealousy she expects the cats will experience in the coming weeks as they share the same space.

Ava seems to think she’s more dog than cat, having spent lots of time with her boyfriend’s dog, Brittany commented.

Beyond the jealousy, she added, she’s not entirely sure what to expect from either cat.