A California cat owner is grateful her adventurous tabby was well cared for on a four-year, 3,000 kilometre road trip from the sunshine state to southern Ontario.
Olga Chmelichek told CTV News Channel that BooBoo the cat is healthy and “looks amazing” after the journey across the continent. Canadian animal protection officers reunited BooBoo with her owners at the Canada-U.S. border near Buffalo, N.Y. earlier this week.
Chmelichek said she was shocked by the phone call from a Guelph, Ont. humane society explaining BooBoo’s whereabouts. The cat had been brought in as a stray earlier this month. A routine scan for a microchip led staff to her owners in California.
“I actually didn’t even answer the phone for the first day because it’s a phone call from Canada. I don’t know anybody in Canada,” she said from her home in Watsonville, Calif. “When I got that phone call it was five o’clock in the morning. I thought ‘am I dreaming? This is crazy.’”
Chmelichek figures BooBoo’s friendly disposition and love of hopping into vehicles may have played a role in her 2013 disappearance.
“If there was a car open, she would get in the car. We’ve had to take her out of a couple cars,” she said.
BooBoo appears to be settling into her old home, but her outdoor privileges have been permanently cut off.
Chmelichek thanked the Canadian authorities for making the unlikely reunion possible.
“I want to thank everybody over there in Canada for coming over the border the way they did, because we don’t have passports. We’re like ‘oh my god what are we going to do.’ They were so gracious coming over and helping and meeting me in Buffalo.”
