Romeo the cat vanished from his Kennebunkport home over 18 months ago. His owner George Lichte was devastated. He just couldn’t accept the fact that the cat is gone. He organized search parties and left no stone unturned but Romeo was nowhere to be found. He never stopped searching for a year.
Right around the same time Romeo disappeared, there were increased coyote sightings in the town. Everyone thought that the cat fell prey to a coyote and even George started to believe the same. After more than 12 months of non-stop efforts to find Romeo, George and his family decided to adopt a new cat. As they were talking about it, the phone rang. It was a vet 120 miles away from the Lichte home that found Romeo!
Shockingly, the cat wasn’t eaten by coyotes or lost. It went 120 miles away from its home to Unity College. Romeo was found by a student called Kevin Taft who brought it to a vet. Romeo was a really friendly cat, so Taft realized that it probably had a family. The vet scanned Romeo’s tag and found George’s number.
George saw the pictures and was absolutely sure it was Romeo. Both he and the vet had no idea how the cat got so far. George was just thrilled his cat was alive. His best guess was that Romeo got into a truck bed and was driven far away. He was probably picked up and cared for by a family until he disappeared again. George had no idea if that was true until a Unity College story cleared all doubts.
Just before Romeo was brought to the vet, a student called Whisper Waite was looking for her cat Neptune. Neptune ran away from home a few days earlier, but little did Whisper know that her beloved cat was actually Romeo.
She and George connected on Facebook and she apologized to him for the ‘kidnapping’. George didn’t mind – he was grateful that someone took care of his cat. Everything turned out for the best in the end, and both George and Romeo’s temporary owner Whisper are glad he’s safe and sound.