Together Again: Never Giving Up On Niko
Our cat Niko went missing, but we soon found out that someone near us had taken a cat like him as a stray to the police department. The PD sends all strays to a local rescue where, they assured us, the team scans all pets for microchips. We asked the rescue center for the incoming pets’ records and were told they were missing. We went back and forth between the rescue and PD multiple times, getting told the paperwork was missing from the rescue. The PD told us that the cat they took to the rescue had white paws, even though we located the lady who had brought Niko to the PD and she said the cat she took in was definitely him and had no white on him. The PD said she must have been mistaken and we took their word for it because they said they scanned all the cats and none had microchips.
We didn’t give up and even though we were told that our cat definitely wasn’t at the rescue, we soon learned to our horror that it wasn’t the case. My mom went out there with my two young daughters and found a cat among many other cats in an outdoor pen, terrified, filthy, drenched in mud, rain and dirt. He looked so bad they couldn’t even be sure it was Niko. But, he came up to them and meowed and my young daughter swore it was him, her very own cat, so we asked them to scan him for the chip. This time the rescue could not check for information, unable to scan him since they didn’t have batteries for their chip reader!!!!!!
Instead, we took the cat to the vet and had him scanned, confirming it was our precious baby boy. Niko is EXTREMELY happy to be home and we are soooo happy to have him back!!!! Our family is now complete again. Because I wouldn’t give up when both the police and the rescue centre were telling me otherwise, I singlehandedly got our baby back. Niko was gone for ten days from his family when he could have been reunited with us the day after he went missing because he has the PetLink microchip. NEVER GIVE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kathryn Ireson:
I am sick of horror stories perpetrated by local shelters and officials! They seriously don’t seem to give a crap and treat pets like chattel! I had a lady call my office because she could hear a tiny kitten in the storm drain. Some idiot threw it in there, there was no other way. I tried for days to get it out. I work for the city and the drain was literally in front of my office right at the side of a horrible busy road. I called the police, the fire department, animal control and public works. Public works who are in charge of the drains said they don’t particularly like cats and they would pick it’s dead body out of the drain! I couldn’t lift the grid by myself. 20 men and not one would help me rescue the kitten. I live in the Bible belt, what a joke. It rained, the kitten drown… I am heartbroken. These people are Christians when it suits them to be. Thanks goodness Niko has such good pet parents. People here treat pets very badly. East TN
MorganMolinaroli:
So glad Niko is home. How dreadful that the shelter did not put batteries in their scanner. That was completely unacceptable.