MAINE – A missing cat that ran from a car on Interstate 95 in Kittery is now back at home with her family in New York after a two-week-long adventure.
Sage, who is an orange tabby cat who walks on three legs, bolted from a vehicle during the intense thunderstorm back on Sept. 11 when a family who was vacationing in York had pulled over to tighten the tarp on their trailer that had loosened.
“She wanted to get out, I guess, and take an adventure,” explained Judy Marks, the cat’s owner.
Marks and four other people, including a stranger who pulled over to help, searched the woods by the Wilson Road overpass, but sadly, to no avail. After just about an hour, Marks knocked on the door of the home of Rebecca Emerson, whose property abuts the highway.
Emerson didn’t see a car in the driveway when she heard the knock. Instead, “there was Judy, soaking wet,” she said.
Marks had asked Emerson if she had seen a cat, which she hadn’t. But Emerson had a Havahart trap, which she offered to use to help catch the escaped feline.
Over the course of the two weeks Sage was missing, “I caught a raccoon, a skunk, and a feral cat,” Emerson stated, but not Sage. Marks called every so often to check in. “I didn’t want to give up hope. I would set out the trap every night, but I didn’t think she would come home,” Emerson stated.
Photos of Sage were posted online, and Maine Lost Cat Recovery took the pictures and made them into posters, which they sent to Emerson to post in the area.
Last Sunday, Claire Smothers, who also lives on Wilson Road, explained that her son found an orange cat in their garage, and they put some food out. In the morning, the cat was still there, and they gave her more food. While out driving later, Smothers saw the lost cat sign, and the cat in the photo looked like the one at their home. She called Marks to let her know she believed she had found her cat.
Marks asked many questions to be sure it was her cat, though Smothers at the time didn’t seem to understand why. “Why don’t you just come over and see the cat?” she asked. It was then she learned she was hours away.
The past Tuesday, Marks got the day off from work drove from Ancramdale, N.Y. to Smothers’ home to retrieve Sage.
For the past six years, Sage has traveled with Marks and the family for vacations in York. The cat moves freely throughout the vehicle, often lying with the family dog. Marks had located the house in York through a woman she knows in New York, who just so happened to be Smothers niece.
“They had been staying at my sister’s house in York,” Smothers stated.
Sage is now doing well, though she is a bit skinnier than she had been. Her hairs a little knotted, but Marks combed her and gave her food, “and she seems to be doing OK,” Marks stated.
