Saskatoon cat home after adoptive family sees social media plea for return

A pet owner’s worst nightmare was a reality for one Saskatoon family.

Melody Cao said their family pet was returned home Tuesday after being gone for a week and a half.

They were out of town when Cocoa disappeared but later learned their cat had been turned in to the Saskatoon SPCA.

After a three-day holding period, he was put up for adoption and the three-year-old feline was adopted a few days passed by a new family.

The Saskatoon SPCA said they followed all bylaws and couldn’t do any more to help the Cao family.

“We do not feel it would be fair to ask the family who adopted the cat to return it to its previous owners as they are now the cat’s rightful owners and we did our due diligence in providing the previous owners the opportunity to reclaim the cat,” the SPCA said in a statement.

When Cao learned they wouldn’t be able to get Cocoa back, she didn’t know what to think.

“It was a mix of emotions,” she said. “We were so grateful he is safe and with a family but at the same time, not a situation anyone wants to hear … ‘your family member has been adopted by another family.'”

Cao turned to social media for help.

“I am just so amazed how people understood he was part of the family,” she said. “They knew the pain we were going through and I think within 24 hours in total there was about more than 100 comments, close a thousand reactions and shares.”

On Tuesday, Cao said the new owners saw the social media post and returned Cocoa to his family.

“I can really tell my parents treat him as their own child,” she said.

“I am just so over the moon with how we were able to reunite them.”

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Cao said they are going to get Cocoa a microchip to prevent this from happening again. They are urging other pet owners to do the same to help any lost pets return home.