Two-and-a-half years after Pharfalla the cat went missing in B.C.’s Central Interior she has been found safe – but 560 kilometres away from home.
The eight-year-old Tortoiseshell female cat is no stranger to travelling long distances although she never had to travel on her own before. Pharfalla is originally from Switzerland and it was there that she was microchipped.
Her owners then moved with her to Seattle, to Calgary, and then settled in McLeese Lake in the Cariboo.
But in June, 2014, Pharfalla went missing.
Staff at the Surrey Animal Resource Centre (SARC) don’t know how she made her way 560 kilometres to the Surrey Guildford neighbourhood, but on Dec. 14 a few residents found her outside their home. They were happy to keep her but wanted to make sure she wasn’t someone else’s cat.
So they took her to SARC who ran her chip, but found no local information on it. However, they were able to figure out her chip was from Switzerland and were able to track her movement to McLeese Lake.
Her owners have been contacted and will be driving down on Friday to pick her up. Despite being missing for so long, SARC staff say Pharfalla is in excellent condition.
Every year, the Surrey Animal Resource Centre provides care to more than 2,000 animals.