WASHINGTON — A California couple has reunited with their cat that went missing in Yellowstone and somehow traveled nearly 1,000 miles back toward home.
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, their cat Rayne Beau was startled and ran into the nearby trees.
The couple looked for him for four days, even laying out his favorite 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.
“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.
But two months later, the Salinas couple was shocked when they heard from the pet microchip company that Rayne Beau had been found and was at the Placer SPCA in Roseville, California, about 200 miles from their home and over 800 miles from where he had been lost in Yellowstone.
Susanne Anguiano told USA TODAY she was skeptical it could be a potential scam until her husband and daughter were also contacted. At that point, they asked for a picture to be sent and about 20 minutes later received a photo confirming it was their missing cat, the couple told the news outlet.
They were told a woman in the area spotted the cat alone in the street and turned him in to the shelter after realizing he was someone's pet.
The next day, the Anguianos drove to Roseville and picked up their cat, who had lost 6 pounds.
“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.
Benny Anguiano said that besides microchipping their cats, they now have also fitted two of them with air tags and Rayne Beau with a GPS global tracker.
The cats love traveling in the camper and looking out the big windows to see deer, squirrels and other animals. But the family is not ready to get on the road with their pets again any time 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.”
