After 5 years on the run, Willow (the mystery cat) finally cashes in her chip

A now-famous calico cat named Willow, who disappeared from a home near the Rocky Mountains five years ago, was found on Wednesday on a Manhattan street and will soon be returned to her family, where two of the three children and one of the two dogs may remember her.  How she got to New York, more than 1,800 miles away, and the kind of life she lived in the city are mysteries.  But thanks to a microchip that was implanted when she was a kitten, Willow will be reunited in Boulder, Colo., with her owners, the Squireses, who had long ago given up hope.

“There are tons of coyotes around here, and owls,” Jamie Squires said. “We put out the ‘lost cat’ posters and the Craigslist thing, but we actually thought she’d been eaten by coyotes.”

Ms. Squires said she and her husband, Chris, were shocked when they received a call about Willow on Wednesday from Animal Care and Control, which runs New York City’s animal rescue and shelter system. Ms. Squires said that when they saw a picture of the cat, they knew it was Willow.  Willow was found on East 20th Street by a man who took her to a shelter, and Julie Bank, executive director of Animal Care, said the microchip led to the Squires family.

“All our pets are microchipped,” Ms. Squires said. “If I could microchip my kids, I would.”


Ah, but is this tale entirely true? The first story is from the New York Times. But several days later, the New York Post had this to say:  The truth behind Willow the cat’s five-year journey from Colorado to Manhattan may not be quite the furry adventure tale it’s been cracked up to be.  She didn’t walk or hitchhike the 1,800 miles from her Boulder home to the Big Apple, it seems, but may instead have simply been scooped up by a New Yorker on a ski vacation and flown back to his or her home in Brooklyn.

“While in Brooklyn, she was loved and very spoiled ... She’s had quite an adventure, but there’s no great mystery behind her travels,” an anonymous person who once cat-sat the calico told the Web site Gothamist.  According to this account, which city officials are not sure they believe, a Colorado vet turned up no record of her original owners and didn’t scan for her implanted microchip. But when the cat was scanned at the city’s Animal Care and Control shelter, her Colorado owners turned up in the database.  After years with the cat, the new owner chose to turn the pet in to the shelter because he or she traveled a great deal and was “unable to give her all the time and attention she deserves,” the writer said.

At any rate, there was a 'miracle' here - i.e. the miracle of modern science!