6 September 2023
FUQUAY-VARINA, N.C. (WNCN) — A big twist in the story of a cat, lost in Kansas and found 10 years later in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. WNCN-TV recently featured the story of “Bob” and the efforts to get him back across the country to his original owner. Now, a woman claims the cat is really hers, and she says his name is Maui.
Police cars spent the morning outside 5-Points Animal Hospital in Fuquay-Varina all due to a conflict over a cat.
The story went viral: a cat lost 10 years ago in Wichita, Kansas, was found a decade later 1,200 miles away in Fuquay-Varina. Scott Wilson, the practice manager at 5-Points Animal Hospital, says a client brought the cat in because it was staying on his porch.
They scanned its microchip and learned it was registered to a woman in Wichita, Kansas, named Carol Holmes, who told them the cat’s name was Bob.
“She’d been looking for him for years, and never in a million years did she think she would ever find him,” noted Wilson.
As the vet’s office made plans to get the cat back to Holmes in Kansas, Alex Streight, who lives in Fuquay-Varina says she recognized the cat, but not as Bob. She says she took the cat in when she lived in Wichita in 2014 and named him Maui.
“Our family pet is being withheld from its rightful owners,” Streight said.
She provided vet records for a cat, but Wilson says it’s difficult to prove her cat is the same cat at the office.
“Is there any way to prove ownership of a cat other than a microchip?” WNCN-TV asked. “No,” Wilson responded. “Not unless you have documented records from the veterinarian that shows you have taken care of this cat with this microchip for X number of years.”
Streight says she chose not to microchip the cat when she got him and insists she didn’t realize he had a chip registered to someone else.
“This is the only family he remembers. We take care of all of our rescues. We have seven rescues,” she said. She says her neighbors turned the cat into the vet, but the circumstances were not clear.
She says she’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the cat doesn’t go to Kansas. She said she was trying to pursue legal action and urged everyone to call the animal hospital where the cat was staying.
“We never intended to have any of this come about,” said Wilson. “We just wanted to get the cat back to its rightful owner.”
The cat is no longer at 5-Points Animal Hospital. An animal control officer picked him up Tuesday afternoon, and animal control investigators will work to determine who will get custody of the cat.