I let Poppy, our chatty, sociable, black tortoise shell cat, out early on March 16 when it was still dark. After we had been out and about that morning it was strange that she was not by the back door when we arrived home.
We received a call from a family one street over that they had found a collar with her name and phone number. We retrieved the collar and looked for our cat with no success. Poppy was not a wanderer — she only visited the neighbours on either side of our home — so we came to the sad realization that she had probably been taken by a coyote.
The following week we had a call from Rose, the animal control officer, to say that she had received a call from a resident the previous week who reported the remains of a cat in the alley behind his home. She collected Poppy’s body which was far from where the collar was recovered. Rose was able to track us down using the ear tattoo to locate the vet and thus our phone number. She kindly delivered Poppy’s body to the veterinarian office so we could have her cremated.
Our family would like to thank the family that took the time to call about the collar, the gentleman who reported finding her remains, and Rose for taking the time and making the effort to identify Poppy and contact us. Thanks for giving us closure. We adopted this lovely character many years ago from the local SPCA and will miss her terribly, but we are glad she spent those happy years with us.
Margot Newton
Penticton