11-year-old Saskatoon boy asks police chief to help find missing cat

Youngster asks cops for help finding cat Stephanie Villella with the story of the case, and how the boy hopes it can be solved.

After spending three weeks searching in vain for his missing cat, an 11-year-old Saskatoon boy wrote a heartfelt plea for help to his city’s police chief.

“Whenever I’m alone, I used to have company,” Michael Radoms’kyy told CTV Saskatoon. “But this time, everything changed.”

In the early hours of Aug. 16, the three-year-old calico cat Michael’s family brought with them when they moved to Canada from Ukraine two years ago was taken from their backyard.

“It was between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m,” Michael’s father, Andrew Ievdokymenko, recalled. “We heard that she said ‘meow’ and she was scared -- we heard this. And my wife went out and she saw a person, she was running away with our cat.”

The family has done everything they can to find the animal, searching their neighbourhood, putting up posters, posting online ads and contacting their local SPCA. Michael has even offered a $150 ransom to the catnappers, “no question asked.” It is all the money he has saved over the past year.

But with no sign of Nana after all this effort, Michael suddenly remembered something he learned in school.

“Last year, when (a) policeman came to our school, (he) told (us) that in case of any trouble, just tell them and ask for help,” Michael explained.

Three weeks after Nana disappeared -- and unbeknownst to his parents -- that’s exactly what Michael did.

“I am writing you a letter because I need help,” Michael said in a note addressed (ADD LINK) to “Mr. Main Chief of Saskatoon Police.”

“I am very scared that kidnappers hurt Nana and toss her away,” he wrote. “I am scared for her because winter is soon. I told my school friends that I am writing a letter to you and they are teasing me. They said that nobody cares to look for my cat. I believe you always help everyone who needs help and can't protect themselves. Nana can't protect herself and she hopes I save her. Please help me save Nana!!!!!”

Michael says that Saskatoon police Chief Troy Cooper personally responded to the letter. Nana, however, has still not been found.

“He said, ‘Thank you for sending this letter,’ and that they would help me find my cat,” Michael said of the reply. Saskatoon police have since turned to Facebook to ask for the public’s help.

But for Michael, that help can’t come soon enough.

“We cannot live without her,” he said.

With a report from CTV Saskatoon’s Stephanie Villella