A cat went lacking earlier than his proprietor moved away. This Hamilton group helped them reunite, 2 months later

When Ben Ehrhardt realized his beloved cat Dan wasn’t inside his east Hamilton house early one morning, his “coronary heart dropped.”

He had come house late the night time earlier than after a protracted day of labor and had unintentionally left his door latch open.

“I felt so responsible. I actually threw on garments … referred to as work and mentioned ‘[I’m] not coming in,’ and I searched and I searched.”

The cat ran out of the home, close to Quigley Highway and King Avenue East, the night time of Nov. 8 — the identical day Ehrhardt had given his two-week discover at his Hamilton job to maneuver greater than 130 kilometres away to Dundalk, Ont.

However trying to find Dan — a nine-year-old short-haired cat with two white patches and “unhappy” eyes — turned prime precedence earlier than he moved. 

“After the primary week, I mentioned … ‘I am sorry, I am unable to think about work. I am unable to provide the final week that you just deserve. I’ll be trying to find my cat.'”

Leaving Hamilton — and Dan

Rising up within the Fort Erie and different components of the Niagara area, for Ehrhardt, Hamilton was “not often known as a very pleasant place,” he mentioned.

However when he posted about Dan on a Hamilton-based lost-and-found-pets Fb group, he was touched by the messages of help.

Quickly sufficient, each black cat posted on the web page had a minimum of one remark from somebody asking, ‘may this be Dan?’

“I used to be extraordinarily, extraordinarily grateful. However I began getting overwhelmed. It was too many black cats, … so I began wanting on the ones that had been shut.”

After a lot consideration, regardless of the actual fact Dan was nonetheless lacking, Ehrhardt moved to Dundalk for work in late November.

But the Hamilton neighborhood saved trying to find the cat.

A number of days earlier than the Christmas winter storm that hit Hamilton and far of southern Ontario on Dec. 23, Ehrhardt noticed a posting of a cat that seemed actually just like Dan, however when he tried to drive to Hamilton, he crashed his automotive.

“I gave up hope. I began doing my grieving course of and began realizing that there is not any method that this cat ever made it by means of [the storm].”

However as soon as once more, the help of different Hamiltonians trying to find Dan saved him from giving up.

Among the many lots of of messages he learn, one particular person’s kindness caught out to him.

“She begins messaging me and says, ‘Is that this your cat?’ And I do not know, there [was] simply one thing about the way in which that she talked that had me maintain messaging her.”

That particular person was Loraine DiStefano. The 2 saved involved till at some point she mentioned her pal was feeding a cat that seemed like Dan.

Ehrhardt mentioned he obtained footage of the cat, and as quickly as he noticed “the Dan eyes,” he knew it was him.

“I by no means say 100 per cent, however that’s 100 per cent my cat.” 

From there, DiStefano took issues into her personal palms and inside a couple of days, Dan was captured. It seemed like Ehrhardt and Dan would reunite.

‘They introduced me again my boy’

Beth Hurl, the admin of the Fb group, was one of many individuals Ehrhardt says was instrumental in reunited Ehrhardt and Dan. She helped coordinate a trapper and dealing with the individuals who noticed him to get him secured.

She mentioned she was over the moon when she obtained the decision that confirmed the captured cat was Dan, yelling in pleasure over the telephone at the one that gave the excellent news.

“I messaged [Ehrhardt], and let him know. And he is like, ‘You are kidding me, proper? You are not pranking me?'”

Ehrhardt mentioned he needed to grasp up on her and take a few minutes to compose himself. 

Whereas Hurl saved Dan in her home till his proprietor was in a position to choose him up, she mentioned Dan did not make a sound, however as quickly as Ehrhardt began speaking to him, he would not cease meowing.

“We posted [the reunion] to the group and it exploded,” mentioned Hurl.

That is what I come house to each night time, and when one in all them’s gone, it is onerous for me to operate.– Former Hamilton resident Ben Ehrhardt

Ehrhardt and Dan lastly reunited on Jan. 10. Ehrhardt mentioned it nonetheless makes him emotional to consider how Hamilton got here collectively to assist him.

“Folks did issues for me that actually, they did not should do, they only did not. [They] introduced me again my boy.”

As somebody who lives alone, Dan and his sister, one other cat named Ann, are Ehrhardt’s household.

“That is what I come house to each night time, and when one in all them’s gone, it is onerous for me to operate.”

Wanting again on the rescue, Hurl says 1000’s of pets like Dan have discovered their method house due to the Fb group she manages.

Canine, cats, birds and hamsters, snakes, peacocks, tortoises and even an emu have discovered their method house due to the communication amongst members of the group. 

She calls it a “pay it ahead” method, since most individuals arrive on the group on the lookout for assist discovering their pet after which keep to assist different discover theirs.

“You could not ask for a greater neighborhood,” she mentioned.