‘I was just shocked’: Family reunited with cat that went missing in Ucluelet 2 years ago

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WatchA heartwarming reunion between a little girl and her cat in Port Alberni Wednesday proves it never hurts to keep a little hope. Skye Ryan reports.

Five-year-old Aria Pendak-Jefferson never gave up hope that her long lost cat Chi Chi, who went missing in Ucluelet two years ago, would come back.

In an emotional reunion in a Port Alberni parking lot on Wednesday, the little girl was proven right.

“Very, very excited,” said Aria.

“This little one never stopped thinking she was going to get her cat back and she was right,” said the girl’s mother, Ashley Jefferson.

The family moved to Courtenay, 200 kilometres away from Ucluelet, but Chi Chi the cat made her way to them with the help of Ucluelet resident Courtnay Johnson.

She said she found the friendly stray, matted and hungry, near her Ucluelet harbour area business April 3.

“She was really bedraggled, but she was really friendly so we just said yup let’s go and try and help. Even if we can’t help. We have to try and help,” said Johnson.

So the Ucluelet woman took the stray home and posted the cat’s photo in local forums as a found pet. That message made its way to Ashley Jefferson’s Courtenay computer, and to her total surprise.

“I was just shocked. Totally shocked,” said Jefferson.

So the mother immediately reached out to Johnson, shared Chi Chi’s story, and told her to look for a tattoo. That matched the stray’s.

“When I called her Chi Chi for the first time, her tail flicked up like ‘how do you know my name?'” said Johnson.

“Honestly with everything going on. This is really amazing,” said Jesse Pendak.

According to the manager of the local SPCA, it’s a rare case.

“Two years later, yeah that’s rare. We don’t get to see a lot of that,” said Sam Sattar of the Alberni-Clayoquot BC SPCA.

The only mystery remaining is just what the cat has been up to.

“I really wish that there could have been a GoPro on this cat, because whatever her adventures are,” said Johnson.

Surviving the West Coast wilderness, to find herself on just the right doorstep, to get her back home and to the little girl who’s missed her.

Skye RyanSkye Ryan

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