Pets feel like family, and many of us who have gone to choose a new cat or dog know that fateful feeling of picking up your new family member. It feels right, like it came into your life for a reason, and from that day on your bond is strong and everlasting. Shonet du Plessis was lucky enough to have the same loving cat come into her life not once, but twice.
Too many of us know the heartbreak of losing a pet. It feels like losing a family member, and when they go, either run away, given up or died, we know we have to say goodbye forever. That's what Shonet thought when her cat Honda was chased out of her home over 4-years ago.
Shonet had two cats, Honda and another male cat, but the other, larger, cat didn't take well to Honda. As they do sometimes, the cat chased Honda out of the home. Shonet was devastated.
For months she searched for Honda, by all accounts a sweet and affectionate short-hair, but couldn't find him. She posted pictures and canvassed the neighborhood, but no one had seen him. To make matters worse Shonet knew she had only a limited time to find Honda; in a few months she would be moving across town.
She didn't find him in time, and when she packed up her home she gave up hope on ever seeing her beloved cat again.
Their reunion is truly amazing!
If you've ever lost a pet you know that the years pass, and the memories may fade, but they never truly go away. Especially when you were forced to say goodbye too soon. The same was true for Shonet.
Four years after losing Honda she would bring him up in conversation whenever she was talking to other cat lovers, one such person was Tracey Hartley.
Hartley works with the Feral Cat Rescue Trust, a foundation that tries to help make the lives of feral cats better. They'll routinely trap, spay/neuter, and feed feral cats - they'll also treat injured and sick felines.
"Last week I had a phone call from someone who told me they had a black cat coming to them and would feed them twice a day," Hartley told North Glen News.
Believing the cat feral, Hartley set out to try and trap him, eventually she succeeded. While taking him to the vet she realized the cat was incredibly affectionate, which is not typical in a feral cat.
She immediately thought of Shonet.
"I said, 'you have to look at this cat, I think it's Honda.'"
After 4 years Shonet wasn't sure, but agreed to check out the mystery cat. She couldn't believe her eyes when Honda greeted her. Now the pair are back in Shonet's new home on a farm outside of the city.
"He has done amazingly well on his own. I am so happy that this rescue has had such an amazing ending," Hartley said.