Woman searching for missing cat lost on BC Ferries sailing

A search is underway for missing cat Luigi, who was last seen on a BC Ferries vessel travelling from Nanaimo to Vancouver.

A B.C. woman is praying for a happy reunion with her much-adored feline after he disappeared while travelling on a ferry from Vancouver Island to the mainland over the weekend.

Vernon resident Neelya Herbert was returning from a vacation with her husband and three pets, on the 10:15 a.m. Coastal Inspiration sailing from Duke Point to Tsawwassen on Saturday, when she last saw her beloved cat, Luigi.

With people prohibited from remaining in their vehicles on the ferry’s lower car deck, the couple had left their truck and its attached camper, as they had so many times before, for the designated passenger areas to wait out the journey.

Luigi was left in the truck with food, water, a litter box and his siblings, a yellow labrador named Finnegan and an orange cat named Kitty. According to Herbert, the back window was left open “about an inch and a half” so the trio had plenty of access to fresh air.

She says she didn’t realize Luigi was missing until the couple were able to return to their truck at 12 p.m. Somehow, her black-and-white companion had squeezed through the gap in the window.

“It’s just so noisy down there. Something scared him, I guess,” she says.

Herbert says the ferry workers were “incredible” and helped her search for the missing Luigi on the lower car deck, but inevitably she had to leave as they were holding up the queue. After the car was ushered off the vessel, Herbert was permitted to wander the lower deck, now free from vehicles, for one final scour. There were no sightings of Luigi, but at least that meant “he hadn’t been runover,” she says.

Herbert was invited back for a full vessel search once the ferry was empty and returned to Duke Point in Nanaimo, but given that would have been at 1 a.m. that evening, and the family had to return back to Vernon, it wasn’t a viable option.

Instead, she plans on taking the same boat at 12:45 p.m. on Thursday, a complimentary service, to look for Luigi once more.

“Multiple sweeps of the vessel were conducted before passengers disembarked, later that evening, and again the following morning,” said a BC Ferries spokesperson in a statement Tuesday.

“While we are unable to enter or search inside customers’ vehicles, trailers, or boats without their consent, crew members did search all accessible areas on board. We have not received any reports or sightings of the cat since the sailing.”

The spokesperson said it is asking the public to “be on the lookout” for the missing pet.

“While incidents of pets going missing on board are extremely rare, we understand how distressing this can be for pet owners and will always do what we can to assist in locating and safely reuniting them with their families,” said the statement.

Herbert, who welcomed the two-year-old tuxedo as a rescue last year, describes him as a healthy, “extremely agile and athletic” feline who loves Temptations cat treats and his big brother Finnegan, who he curls up to sleep with every evening.

“The outpouring of support for Luigi is incredible and everybody has just been phenomenal with trying to help me get my pussycat back,” she says.

“I appreciate everything that everyone is doing just to try and find him again.”