NEW YORK — Willow, a calico cat who disappeared from her Colorado home five years ago, was found Wednesday on a Manhattan street and will soon be returned to her family, in which two of the three kids and one of the two dogs may remember her.
How she got to New York, more than 1,600 miles away, and how she fared in the Big Apple are mysteries.
But thanks to a microchip implanted when she was a kitten, Willow will be reunited with her owners, who had long ago given up hope.
“To be honest, there are tons of coyotes around here, and owls,” said Jamie Squires of Boulder. “She was just a little thing, 5 1/2 pounds. We put out the ‘Lost Cat’ posters and the Craigslist thing, but we actually thought she’d been eaten by coyotes.”
Squires and her husband, Chris, were “shocked and astounded” when they got a call Wednesday from Animal Care & Control, which runs New York City’s animal rescue and shelter system. Willow had been found on East 20th Street by a man who took her to a shelter.
“My husband said, ‘Don’t say anything to the kids yet. We have to make sure,’ ” Squires said. “But then we saw the picture, and it was Willow. It’s been so long.”
ACC executive director Julie Bank said a scanner found the microchip that led to the Squires family.
The children are 17, 10 and 3 years old, so the older two remember Willow, Squires said. As for the toddler? “She saw the photo and said, ‘She’s a pretty cat.’ ” The Squireses also have a yellow Labrador named Roscoe, who knew Willow, and an English mastiff named Zoe.
Squires said Willow escaped in late 2006 or early 2007 when contractors left a door open during a home renovation.
