What seemed at first like a regular lost cat case was actually a crime of theft and cruelty.
Brownie the cat vanished when a neighbor decided he did not want any cats around his pregnant wife. He trapped Brownie and took her across town where he ordered donuts at a drive-through window then dumped the poor kitty out back.
Once he confessed to the police, we knew where to focus the search, but Brownie was making her way home.
I learned a lot from this case, and profiling Brownie taught me what cats will attempt the journey home, and which ones stay in the area they are dumped.
Here's Traci to tell the story of how we got this missing cat stolen by their next-door neighbor back home.
"With the help of Kim the Lost cat finder, we have our trapped / dumped Brownie back home.
I've written up our "LOST CAT FOUND" story which is actually a "DUMPED CAT FOUND" tale in reality. You are welcome to share it with anyone in the world:)
This is the story of our cat Brownie’s search and recovery.
We had been searching for our missing cat for weeks until we finally found out the truth. With the help of the police, we got the man next door to tell us where he dumped our cat and why.
The police say stolen cats are rare, but this was a criminal case as cats are considered personal property.
He fessed up that he had trapped our cat because he did not want any "animals near his wife" and told us where he took her.
For days, all I could do is scream in rage and cry with a broken heart. I felt overwhelmed, completely distraught, then sick when I realized Brownie was no longer in the parking lot where she had been dumped by my neighbor.
We had gotten one sighting of her near the dump site, but then nothing for 3 weeks. We had (along with the help of faithful friends) passed out over 250 flyers, put up neon posters, knocked on many doors, searched the woods over and over many times, trapped and rescued other kitties, made a Facebook page (Bring Brownie Home), put ads on every "Pet Finder" and lost pets page we could find, even ads in the local paper and Craigslist...but no Brownie.
I asked God to send His angels to protect her from harm for the five weeks she had been missing. I begged God to lead me to Brownie or at least to lead her back home. I simply couldn’t stand much more. I was talking to my Mom on the phone, crying, praying…this had become my normal nighttime routine…walking through the woods in the middle of the night calling out to Brownie, driving the same routes over and over just for the hope of a glimpse of our sweet kitty.
Once I found Kim the Lost Cat Finder site, we covered her materials and asked for assistance. I told her our case and asked where to go from here. She gave us a strategy which included a map where she had traced a line from the dump location to my house. She then marked the areas to focus on searching and posters along that route.
We focused on where Brownie would go. Since she had been dumped in a commercial business area, she would seek peace and cover. The area was essentially a triangle surrounded by busy roadways on three sides.
If she tried to make her way home, she would have to cross a busy highway (Hwy 544). I prayed she would only try it in the middle of the night, then Kim told me how many cats go UNDER roads and highways via storm drain tunnels. This led me to realize a route she may have taken which came out at a small community I had never noticed before. Right near what woud have been a direct route home for Brownie. I suddenly felt hope. She could be in this community somewhere. I conferred with the Lost cat finder and we decided to focus on this area.
The next day, we covered this new area with flyers and posters. At the very last house in the development, far end of the road, we knocked on the door and handed the resident a flyer. The resident mentioned that a new cat had shown up two weeks ago. They looked at our flyer felt positive it was her.
Operation Bring Brownie Home began. We prayed for guidance and consulted Kim for strategy each night. We set out food and we waited. The surveillance camera spotted 3 kitties overnight. One which was the resident’s cat, one brown tabby which we were sad to realize was NOT Brownie. But then there was one unknown…a tabby with its back to the camera.
Could it be her? We had looked at so many cat images over the past five weeks. We weren’t sure, but we couldn’t rule this cat out.
The next morning we started a new plan: set up a large dog trap on the perimeter and spend the night in a sleeping bag waiting for this "unkown" kitty to show up. Brownie wasn’t getting away from us if this was her.
That morning when my husband went to new batteries in camera, he was shocked.
There she was. DEFINITLEY her! Our Brownie! Our little baby girl. Pretty as a picture. He began texting me the pictures... I cried tears of joy seeing her sweet face.
Then my husband called me and told me to listen.
He was one the scene, trying to find her after seeing the image. He KNEW she was there. He started talking to Brownie, and she meowed back at him! He couldn’t see her, but as Kim the cat finder had coached us to do, he sat on the ground and began talking to her as if she was at home.
Each time he spoke her name, she answered.
After an hour or talk and reply, she came out from under the house and literally crawled into his lap.
I was still on the phone listening when I heard him say,
“I have Brownie! She is in my arms and we are coming home!”
Kim Freeman, thank you for all your guidance throughout this mess. You are the best lost cat finder ever!"
What a long journey this has been and what seemed like an impossible one so many times. I will never forget the guidance and strategy you gave when we felt so hopeless and lost.
Thank you for giving us a plan and all the support along the way to get our poor stolen and dumped kitty back home!
Traci in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
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