By Ed Pierce
Christmas presents come in all shapes and sizes, yet for one Windham family this year, the enormity of the gift they have been given simply cannot be measured.
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| Kristina Atkinson and her son, Rylen, left, helped return Noodle to his owners Sarah Walker and her daughter, Eliza Symes last week. The cat had been missing from his Windham home for more than three months and his family had about given up hope that he would ever be found. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE |
But on Saturday, Aug. 31 all of that changed. Sarah and Eliza couldn’t find Noodle anywhere in their home and believed he had somehow slipped out the door and become lost. They spent the remainder of Labor Day Weekend desperately searching for Noodle, walking up and down their street, searching under bushes and calling out his name. They posted on local community boards that he was lost and even notified the Maine Lost Cat Recovery Network praying and hoping someone would find Noodle and bring him home.
Days turned into weeks without knowing Noodle’s whereabouts and as the weeks turned into more than a month of the cat being lost, Sarah and Eliza’s optimism about finding him started to fade.
“I felt sad and didn’t think he’d come back,” Eliza said. “It was like losing my friend forever and I cried a lot.”
Sarah says she tried to remain hopeful for her daughter but that wasn’t easy as the weather began to turn colder at night in September and the calendar changed to October, and then on to November and eventually to December.
“After the first couple of weeks, I didn’t think he’d come home,” she said.
The mother and her daughter focused on recalling the good times with Noodle, who is known in their household as sort of a troublemaker.
“He’s very friendly but can get under your feet and trip you,” Sarah said. “I also think it was him who turned on the faucet and flooded our kitchen one time.”
Kristina Atkinson and her family live about a mile, or what amounts to a 10-minute walk, from Sarah Walker off Albion Road in Windham.
She said that on Nov. 8 she told her son, Rylen, 6, to use caution in letting their dog out in the backyard because she had briefly spotted what appeared to be an orange tail in her neighbor’s yard and thought it might be a fox.
Later that same day, Kristina noticed that some leftover chicken sitting on their grill was gone. She saw the orange tail again and observed that it didn’t belong to a fox, rather it was a large orange cat. She said she assumed the cat belonged to her neighbor.
A few days later her sister saw the male cat, sitting in the Atkinsons' driveway. And suddenly he was everywhere on their Ring cameras, showing up at 8 p.m., 11 p.m., 3 a.m. and at all hours of the day and night.
Despite her husband’s apprehension, Kristina started leaving some soft cat food outside her door for what she surmised was a homeless and lost orange cat. The cat would eat the food and leave, and it wouldn’t make eye contact with Kristina or Rylen.
But on Saturday evening, Dec. 7, Kristina opened the door when the cat was eating, and he appeared to be startled and walked about 20 feet away. But he suddenly turned and came back, sitting there still for about five minutes before approaching Kristina and letting her pet him. When she returned inside, he sat outside the door and cried to come inside.
Kristina and Rylen let the friendly cat in and found a warm space inside their garage for him and started to post on social media about finding him and looking for his owner. Her husband fell in love with the cat and thinks it may have found a warm spot in a nearby culvert to survive while lost.
“I had a woman from Raymond contact me and they thought he was their lost cat,” Kristina said. “They drove here and took the cat to their home and thought it was theirs.”
But as it turned out, it wasn’t their lost cat, who was much older and was polydactyl with multiple toes on its paws.
At 5 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 9, Kristina then read a Facebook post by Sarah looking for Noodle. She contacted Sarah and they agreed to meet later that day at the veterinarian’s office to see if the cat was Sarah’s. It seems Noodle had been microchipped when Sarah first got him, and the vet could determine if the cat found by Kristina was indeed the lost Noodle.
Kristina drove to Raymond and picked up the cat from the family who had originally thought it was theirs. She met Sarah at the veterinarian and within a few minutes, the microchip confirmed that the orange cat was the missing Noodle.
Before meeting Kristina at the vet though, Sarah had picked up Eliza from school.
“She did not know. I picked her up a little early and said I had a surprise, and that Noodle was in the car,” Sarah said. “Then we took him to the vet. I didn’t want to tell her we might have found him and then to have it not be him. She was happy and excited. I think she kind of didn’t believe it was him for a moment.”
Kristina and Rylen say they were pleased to have played a part in returning Noodle to his home after being lost for more than three months and one week.
“I keep telling people I lost my dad a year ago and he was a huge animal lover,” Kristina said. “I think he led Noodle to our house. My hope is this will inspire others to do this too.”
Noodle quickly adapted to being warm and back at his home.
“He had lost some weight but was a big cat to begin with,” Sarah said. “He’s been hungry ever since. I tell Eliza that Santa Paws helped him find Kristina and she knew how to get him back home.”
Sarah said she cannot begin to express her gratitude to Kristina for her kindness.
“We are very grateful for her going out of her way for us,” Sarah said. “It’s nice to know the community will help you if you need it.”
As for Eliza, she rarely takes her eyes off Noodle these days.
“He hasn’t changed at all,” she said. “He’s my friend and if you ask me, it’s truly a Christmas miracle that he’s back home with the people who love him.” <
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