Lost cat rings in the New Year reunited with owner in Canonsburg
Courtesy of Fix Ur Cat
Chas Reed, of Virginia, is reunited with his cat Selena, who was lost in Canonsburg for the past six months. They were reunited Sunday after volunteers with Fix Ur Cat discovered her and identified her microchip.
Courtesy of Fix Ur Cat
Chas Reed, of Virginia, with Lee Wilson, left, and Gina Nestor, volunteers with Fix Ur Cat who helped find Reed’s cat in Canonsburg.
A Virginia family received a Christmas miracle in Canonsburg when they were reunited with their cat, Selena, who had been missing for six months.
The 6-year-old tortoiseshell-tabby mix had gone missing near Southpointe in late June, while her owners, Chas and Tracy Reed, were in town visiting family.
“We looked everywhere,” Chas said. “I spent every waking hour for about two weeks looking for her.”
They searched in Southpointe and Canonsburg for Selena, but couldn’t find her before they had to return to their Virginia home. Friends and family in Canonsburg continued to search.
“My wife was hoping for a Christmas miracle,” Chas said. “My wife and kids were more hopeful than me at that point. I thought that either someone had taken her or that maybe one day she would turn up somewhere because she had a chip.”
That’s exactly what happened Sunday. Lee Wilson and Gina Nestor, volunteers with Fix Ur Cat, were managing a colony of cats on Vine Street and noticed a cat that matched Selena’s description, according to a Facebook post from Fix Ur Cat.
“Apparently she was ready to go home. She kept jumping in Lee’s car,” the post read.
Wilson and Nestor brought the cat to Fix Ur Cat to see if it had a microchip. Fix Ur Cat received a chip reader last year, thanks to an April fundraiser put on by Linda Caputo and her line-dancing class. That chip reader was able to identify Selena, bringing her great adventure to an end.
“We’re calling it a Christmas miracle,” said Fix Ur Cat President Michelle Bruce. “You just don’t ever get these kinds of stories. It’s very hard to reunite a cat with its owner once it leaves.”
The Reeds were contacted that day, and just so happened to be in town visiting family again for Christmas. Chas said he didn’t believe it at first, until they sent him a picture of Selena. His 4-year-old child “cried with happiness” at the news, and his 9-year-old told him that “because they kept hoping, that’s the reason we found her,” Chas said.
Selena is an indoor cat, whom Chas described as skittish. Tracy said she’s cuddly and “the sweetest cat ever.” They hadn’t hung her little Christmas stocking this year because she was still missing and seeing the stocking made them sad, Chas said.
“Now that she’s home, we hung it and put some little cat toys in it,” he said. “So she got a belated Christmas present.”
Chas said his family is so thankful for all the people who contributed in the search for Selena.
“There are so many cats in Canonsburg,” Chas said. “The fact that there are people out there trying to help them and making sure they’re being spayed and neutered – they’re really the unseen heroes.”