Windham couple grateful for community’s help in finding missing cat

By Ed Pierce

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.

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  

Barboza has owned Kitty for the past nine years since he was just six weeks old and she was desperate to find him. She and her fiancé Gary Trask searched for Kitty for weeks without any luck and as the weather got cold this fall, Breyanna, who is on disability, worried that her pet might never be found.

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.

“Other than that, it was mostly me walking miles a day to try to see where he could have gone,” Breyanna said. “People kept telling me not give up hope, look under sheds and other spots like that, set out traps, shake treats and call for him.”

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.”

Breyanna then woke Gary up and told him that Kitty had been found and he was alive.

“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.

“I would love to say to the community after this hard, hard time thank you for keeping me updated with sightings if you saw him and made me feel better about him being an outdoor cat to and didn't judge me for it,” she said. “His happiness is the most important thing to me. Thank you for keeping him in your prayers. It’s a miracle to have him back.” <

Lost and Found: 'Christmas Miracle’ answers Windham family’s prayers

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.

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  

Sarah Walker of Windham and her daughter, Eliza Symes, 8, adopted Noodle, an orange kitten, from the Animal Refuge League three years ago and he rapidly became a beloved member of their family. He grew into a mischievous and friendly indoor cat with a huge personality and a large appetite who likes to perch at the top of the stairs in their home and observe his surroundings or to encourage hugs and attention from Eliza.

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.” <