If he could speak, oh what a tale he could tell.
Tiger the cat’s first outdoor adventure was a big one, considered by some to be a miracle.
After six weeks on the lam, the two-year-old tabby was reunited with his Calgary family on New Year’s Day.
On Nov. 21, the declawed, indoor cat was travelling along the Trans-Canada Highway when his owner Paul Bussiere lost control of his Toyota Tacoma truck.
It rolled off the highway near Linberg Road in Sorrento. Bussiere was transported to hospital, the vehicle was towed away – and Tiger was nowhere to be found.
When Good Samaritan Taryn Schmid received a copy of a Shuswap Market News story detailing the accident and the missing cat, she embarked on a find-Tiger mission.
She put up posters and knocked on doors in the neighbourhood asking people to be on the lookout for the feline.
“I am an animal lover; I have a bunch of cats and have rescued everything from iguanas to ferrets to dogs and cats,” she says, noting she heard about the cat three days after the accident and took time off work to start an intensive search, a search she continued when Bussiere was released from hospital and joined her in the hunt.
“The cat was de-clawed and had never been outside and it was minus 17,” Schmid says, pointing out a number of eagles and other wild animals inhabit the area near Shuswap Lake.
One of the doors Schmid knocked on was that of Paul and Christine Wist’s Viel Street home. Cat owners themselves, Paul first spied the cat crossing the road from a neighbour’s lakeside property to drink from a nearby ditch sometime in mid-December.
They began putting food and water on their porch but didn’t hold out a lot of hope for the feline.
“Paul had been sure the cat was gone,” says Christine, pointing out the couple have lost three cats and one small dog over the last five years. “There are all sorts of animals that prey on cats around here – a lynx, bobcats, coyotes.”
On New Year’s Day, Paul saw the cat coming across the road at about 11 a.m. and quickly pulled the food and water into the house, leaving the door open.
When the cat entered their home, Paul went out another door and hustled around to shut the front door before Tiger could continue his outdoor adventure.
While Paul had recycled the poster just the day before so they couldn’t compare the cat to his photo, the Wists were quite sure they had the right feline when they discovered he had no front claws.
Christine sent her husband to the local mailboxes to get the poster with the owners’ phone number and immediately called Rachel Richter, Bussiere’s partner.
“I said I’ve got some good news and she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so she did a bit of both,” Christine laughs, noting both the women were emotional. “It was a pretty amazing story of survival; we figure it must have been feeding on the dead salmon along the lake.”
Bussiere and Richter immediately set out from Calgary to retrieve their beloved cat, arriving at the Wists’ around 9 p.m. and leaving again within the hour.
Christine says that while he was in the couple’s home, Tiger was equally comfortable on either lap and followed her or Paul around meowing whenever they moved, as if to say “don’t leave me.”
“I was just so happy to give them the miracle they wanted so desperately,” she says.
Schmid was equally thrilled with the Tiger’s unexpected return and headed to the Wists’ to see the cat for herself.
“When they phoned me, I started bawling, happy bawling, but I choked up and had a good sob,” she laughs.
Bussiere and Richter are not only overjoyed with the return of their Tiger, they are amazed by the continuing efforts Schmid and the Wists made, long after they had returned to Calgary.
Describing the three Good Samaritans as being forever in his heart, Bussiere says he’s been inspired to pay it forward if he is ever given the opportunity.
“Tiger was pretty grumpy but he’s coming around and is happy to be home,” says Bussiere, noting the affectionate feline sleeps on the couple’s bed every night. “Vehicles are replaceable, but the cat is part of the family. I can’t believe he’s alive.”