A US cat living an extraordinary life of visits to the beach and trips to the lake has gone on his biggest adventure alone: travelling hundreds of kilometres from Wyoming to California.
But how the grey feline named Rayne Beau made it home two months after getting lost in Yellowstone National Park during a summer camping trip remains a mystery.
Benny and Susanne Anguiano and their two cats arrived at Yellowstone’s Fishing Bridge RV Park on June 4 for the cats’ first trip to the forest.
But soon after they arrived, Rayne Beau was startled and ran into the nearby trees.
The couple looked for him for four days, even laying out his favourite treats and toys.
When they finally had to drive back to Salinas, California, on June 8, Susanne Anguiano said she was crushed but never lost hope she would find him.
In August, the Anguianos received amazing news when a microchip company told them their cat was at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Roseville, California, nearly 1450km from Yellowstone.
He was only about 320km away from his home in Salinas.
A woman who first saw Rayne Beau wandering the streets of the northern California city fed him and gave him water until she trapped him on August 3 and took him to a local SPCA.
The next day, the Anguianos drove to Roseville and picked up their cat, who had lost about 3kg.
“I believe truly that he made that trek mostly on his own. His paws were really beat up. Lost 40 per cent of his body weight, had really low protein levels because of inadequate nutrition. So he was not cared for,” Susanne Anguiano said.
The couple still does not know how their cat got to Roseville but believes he was trying to get home.
Benny Anguiano said besides microchipping their cats, they had also now fitted two of them with air tags and Rayne Beau with a GPS global tracker.
But the family was not ready to get on the road with their pets again soon, he said.
“It was a very ugly feeling after we lost him,” Benny Anguiano said.
“We’ll have to practice camping at home and camp in the driveway to get him used to it.”
Source Agencies
