Lauren Craig cuddles Pirate in her North Tryon barn on Saturday. (Jessica Doria-Brown/CBC)
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, CANADA – Lauren Craig was just a little skeptical when her niece called to say Pirate the barn cat had climbed through her Grade 6 classroom window on Thursday.
And who wouldn’t be skeptical? The school was in Kinkora, a whole ten miles away from her North Tryon farm.
“She knew it was farfetched, but she was pretty insistent that the cat looked exactly like Pirate,” Craig stated.
Turns out her niece was right on the money!
Pirate, apparently, had been hiding in the back of a truck that left the farm the day before. He hopped off when it stopped in Kinkora and somehow found his way to Somerset Elementary School.
The kids at Somerset Elementary School in Kinkora said they knew the rogue cat was Pirate because of the black patch on his left eye. (Jessica Doria-Brown/CBC)
He does, after all, have “a good sense of smell,” stated Craig’s eight-year-old daughter Isabelle.
The teacher put him back outside, but the kids were absolutely sure the friendly visitor was Pirate.
“I thought it was Pirate because on his left eye he has a black patch, that’s why we named him Pirate,” stated Craig’s eight-year-old nephew Cole.
Craig and her kids then went to Somerset after school Thursday to look for the rogue cat, but he was nowhere to be found. The kids felt sad.
“He’s the kindest cat I think I’ve ever seen,” Isabelle stated.
But Pirate’s adventure wasn’t quite over yet.
Friday morning, Craig got a phone call from her sister-in-law, who is a teacher at Somerset.
“She said, ‘You’d better go on the humane society website, I think Pirate is on there.'”
Sure enough, someone had found Pirate and decided to take him to the Humane Society. So the family drove the 40 kilometres to Charlottetown to see for themselves.
It sure was Pirate, all right.
Students were surprised when Pirate the cat climbed through the Grade 6 window at Somerset Elementary School in Kinkora on Thursday. (Jessica Doria-Brown/CBC)
He’s now back on the farm with all the other animals. Craig is very relieved there was a happy ending.
“It sounds like a story my mom would tell me about growing up on a farm … and I’m glad my kids get some farm stories of their own.”
