Breyanna Barboza of Windham continued to pray for a miracle and clung to the hope that her beloved lost cat Kitty would return home safely.
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| After being missing for 37 days, Breyanna Barboza's beloved missing cat Kitty was found on Emerson Drive in Windham on Oct. 18. The cat disappeared from Barboza's Pope Road home on Sept. 12, prompting a frantic five-week search for the lost poet. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
On Saturday, Sept. 12, Breyanna attended a wedding and when she returned home afterward, she discovered Kitty, who was born outside in a barn and is an outdoor/indoor cat, was missing.
“He has never done this before in the nine years that I’ve had him,” Breyanna said. “I knew instantly something was not right and I felt it in my whole being.”
The couple then took steps to try and find their lost cat. They called local animal shelters and local veterinarians, alerted neighbors, posted Kitty’s photographs on social media and began to walk streets around their Pope Road home calling out for him.
“I walked miles a day until my body could no longer walk because of my disorders. I posted on the Windham community page every week, walked to all the neighbors around me and asked for them to look for him and keep an eye out,” Breyanna said. “We printed flyers and put them in neighbors’ mailboxes, called animal shelters, vets, and everywhere I could to try to find him.”
She said the ordeal was gut-wrenching and didn’t know how she could cope if Kitty was never found.
“Honestly the love I have for Kitty is what kept me going,” Breyanna said. “For the first few days when he went missing, I went to the field near my house and just cried and cried and cried. I didn't want to be here on this earth without him. But I knew I had to keep going because I love him and I needed to find out answers and had to keep trying. He deserves that. He deserved me not giving up complete hope and I pushed myself to keep trying.”
Gary works night shift and sleeps during the day, but he was supportive of the search, as were Breyanna’s roommates who lent a hand by calling neighbors alerting them about the missing cat.
As time went on, Breyanna found it hard for her to accept that Kitty was gone.
“I thought he had passed away because it was so unlike him to do,” she said. “I still kept hope, because he's everything to me and I would never ever just give up looking. I looked even though everything inside me felt in agony without him.”
According to Breyanna, the compassion shown to her by the community helped her cope.
“People's kindness made me get through. If I heard ‘you are a horrible person for letting him outside,’ I would be not here I don't think,” she said.” When he went missing honestly everything in me went into agony.”
The search went on for 37 days until Kimberly Cook saw a post on the Windham Maine Community Board Unfiltered containing photos of a found cat in Windham. She remembered Breyanna’s posts on the Windham Maine Community Board and she sent Breyanna a message on Sunday, Oct. 18.
“Someone named Melissa Ann Dalrymple posted pictures of him. He was all the way by Emerson Drive about 2.2. miles away in Windham,” Breyanna said. “She just posted how he got in her car and didn't want to leave her car. She stayed with him for two hours outside and fed him, so he wasn't alone and posted on the Windham Maine Community Board Unfiltered page how he was in her car.”
“When I saw the message that he was found and the pictures of him, I ran out the door so fast and forgot the address and everything because I was that excited,” she said. “Gary had to look it up and everything because my heart was beating so fast. It didn't feel real at first.”
They drove over to Melissa’s house, picked Kitty up and then brought him home.
“He's doing great,” Breyanna said. “He's so happy to be here. He follows me around, meows and listens like he always used to. Everything I say he just looks and understands.”
She believed her continued posts trying to find Kitty helped find him.
