Lost Cat Goes on Epic, Solo Adventure of a Lifetime, Traveling 900 Miles From Yellowstone National Park to His Home in California
When Benny and Susanne Anguiano arrived at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming with their two cats in tow this past summer, they never would have imagined that one of their cats would become startled and high-tail it in the vast wilderness on its own.
The couple frantically searched for him for several days while staying at Yellowstone’s Fishing Bridge RV Park, but to no avail, they were not able to locate the gray cat anywhere.
Arriving back to their home in Salinas, California without their cat was heartbreaking: Susanne was devastated by the loss of her cat but remained hopeful she would locate him somehow, someway. A double rainbow appeared before them on their way home as they entered the Nevada desert: a sign that all would be well, and their cat would be found.
“We were entering the Nevada desert and all of a sudden I see a double rainbow. And I took a picture of it and I thought, that’s a sign. That’s a sign for our rainbow that he’s going to be okay,” she said.
Little did she and her husband know, their gray cat, named Rayne Beau — pronounced “rainbow,” had an epic solo adventure planned to make his way back to them: he would traverse woods, mountains, and streams, traveling 900 miles from Wyoming to his home in California come rain or shine.
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Fast-forward to August of this year, and a message arrives from a microchip company to Benny and Susanne indicating that their gray cat, Rayne Beau, had been picked up by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Roseville, California. They were located approximately 900 miles from Yellowstone National Park, and only 200 miles from where they lived.
Thanks to a dutiful and compassionate woman who had seen Rayne Beau wandering the streets near her home, she made sure to feed and provide water to the gray cat each day before she was able to catch him and take him to the local SPCA.
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After receiving the message from the microchip company, Benny and Susanna drove to the SPCA in Roseville, California to collect their adventurous gray cat.
A tad skinnier than he was back in June, after losing six pounds from most certainly his epic travels, the Anguianos were beyond thrilled, and relieved, to see him.
“I believe truly that he made that trek mostly on his own. His paws were really beat up. Lost 40% of his body weight, had really low protein levels because of inadequate nutrition. So he was not cared for,” Susanne Anguiano said.
While the couple will never know how Rayne Beau made his way safely from Yellowstone National Park to Roseville, they feel certain his cat senses were leading him back to the safety of his home.
Asked if they will travel via camper with their two cats again, Benny and Susanna have decided to take a pause on traveling with their cats for now.
“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.”
While this story could have ended in a completely different way, the outcome is a positive one, and a pet owner lesson that everyone should learn from: microchip your pets. Should they become lost, that little tracker is your pet’s best bet to making its way back into your arms safely.
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