CAMAS — Whilst days become weeks after which months, Camas residents Craig Whitten and Abbey Crnich by no means gave up hope their misplaced cat, Chong, would return house.
“We had a feeling like he was just on a grand adventure,” Whitten stated. “We always had this feeling he would come back — one way or another.”
Chong, an 11-year-old ragdoll, went lacking on Oct. 24. Greater than three months later, Whitten and Crnich noticed a put up on a lacking pets Fb web page they’d created a decade earlier that regarded precisely like Chong.
“There was no doubt in my mind when I saw the picture because he’s got a smudge on his nose,” Whitten stated. “I’ve seen him with that same exact look a thousand times. There was no doubt, like, ‘That’s our cat.’”
Not solely had Chong been lacking for 3 months, he had traveled from his house in Camas to Beth Morris’ again porch in Washougal.
Morris noticed Chong on her porch Jan. 30 however couldn’t corral the wayward cat.
A self-described animal lover, Morris believes Chong was drawn to the cat meals she recurrently places out to feed raccoons.
After seeing the cat on her porch, Morris opened her door and tried to persuade Chong to return inside however the adventurous feline skittered away.
Morris posted the cat’s image within the Camas/Washougal Misplaced Pet Connection group on Fb — the identical group Whitten and Crnich launched 10 years prior when Chong’s litter mate went lacking.
The couple contacted Morris.
“It was serendipity,” Morris stated. “I get chills. It’s so cool to see it come full circle and benefit from what they started so many years ago.”
Whitten and Crnich have had Chong since he was a 6-week-old kitten. They are saying that whereas he’s all the time been an out of doors cat, he would all the time return house after a couple of hours of prowling — till that night in late October.
“He’s a hunting breed, so he’ll go out at night sometimes and come back in the morning,” Whitten stated. “But, he just didn’t come home. After a day, and especially two days, we were like, ‘We have to make flyers.’”
From October to January, the couple noticed no signal of Chong.
Lower than 10 minutes after Morris posted the photograph on Fb, she acquired a message from Whitten, who wrote that he believed the cat within the image was his. Whitten and Crnich went to Morris’ home the following day and located Chong, however couldn’t catch him.
“For a half hour, we’d slowly go up to him — about 5 feet away — but he would skid away,” Whitten stated. “He was meowing. He was very unsure.”
For the following week, Whitten, Crnich and Morris have been consumed by their efforts to catch Chong.
“I would talk to the Amazon truck (driver), the mailman. Everyone in my neighborhood knew about Chong,” Morris stated.
Whitten and Crnich purchased two path cameras, however couldn’t find Chong when he wasn’t prowling round Morris’ again porch. They then enlisted the help of I Paw’d It Ahead, a Battle Floor nonprofit that provides lost-and-found pet companies to Clark County residents. I Paw’d It Ahead offered Morris with a entice.
Morris stuffed the entice with blankets, meals and catnip, and positioned it outdoors her home. Over the following few days, the entice ensnared two feral cats and virtually caught two others, however there was no signal of Chong.
After a number of days of near-misses, Morris began to get discouraged.
“I’d go out with my flashlight every night before I go to bed, (calling), ‘Chong, Chong,’ but nothing,” she stated. “I was like, ‘I don’t even want to see,’ because I’d get up in the morning and the (trap) door would still be open.”
On Feb. 7, Morris noticed that there was a critter contained in the entice however didn’t wish to get too hopeful.
“I’m like, ‘OK, I’m not getting excited. We probably got another stray or a raccoon,’” Morris stated.
However when she opened the entice, she noticed Chong’s face peering again at her.
“I knew it was him,” she stated. “I was dancing, I was screaming, I was crying, I was so excited. My neighbors were probably ready to commit me to the psychiatric ward. I called Craig first, and my message was probably garbled … because I was so excited.”
Whitten and Crnich returned to Morris’ home later that day to choose up their cat.
“I was so excited,” Crnich stated. “It was like so many emotions all at the same time, I couldn’t handle it.”
“It was pure bliss, an emotion that I’d never quite felt before,” Whitten added. “I knew he was out there and would come back, but when I actually saw him, I was just like, ‘You’re here.’ I was so fulfilled and overwhelmed.”
A go to to a veterinarian confirmed Chong misplaced some weight whereas adventuring and was dehydrated however was in any other case in good condition.
“When we first brought him home, he hissed and did normal brother stuff to his litter mate, but he’s settled in now,” Whitten stated. “We put a harness on him, with an Apple AirTag so he can be tracked from our phones.”
Fb group
Chong’s brother, Chubs, disappeared in July 2014, which is when Crnich created the Camas/Washougal Misplaced Pet Connections Fb group. Whereas Chubs’ 12-day journey didn’t final almost so long as his brother’s, it did function the impetus for residents to return collectively and assist one another discover their misplaced animals.
Whitten and Crnich determined to maintain the web page going after discovering Chubs.
It grew over time, in accordance with Whitten, and now has greater than 5,600 members. Whitten estimates it has helped a whole bunch of east Clark County residents discover lacking pets over the previous decade.
“We’ve seen so many pets brought home through that page,” he stated. “It’s incredibly busy at times.”
The couple stated their expertise with Chong has helped them acknowledge the significance of the Fb web page much more.
“It changed our lives,” Whitten stated. “I feel it even more now that I’ve been through it. I’ll make a little more effort to share posts outside the page or take a second look at a cat. It’s bigger than just us.”