This cat's name is Rayne Beau, pronounced “rainbow.” He has been a global news highlight in the past two weeks.
Read the USAToday article: A cat went missing in Wyoming. 2 months later, he was found in his home state, California.
“Travel” Cat
Travel was my white and orange cat in the late 1950s. I am sorry that I don’t remember how I got this cat and why we called him “Travel,” but I still have not forgotten what happened to him.
Focusing on 1959, I was 14 years old and lived in Farmersville, Ohio, which had a population of 587 in the 1950 census. My parents rented a “farm” property below for $50 a month for nine months (3 summer months were not counted since my dad’s teaching salary for nine months.)
Whoa! I took the above picture on Eclipse Day on April 8, 2024.
The current owner did an excellent job restoring the property, even adding a swimming pool.
Guess what? My dad converted half of the top floor of the barn into a half-court basketball court, so my friends came to play indoor basketball with me.
In addition to Travel, I had a dairy calf (for the 4-H Club project), two rabbits, and a dog named Sport (who died before 1959).
Travel was an outside cat who roamed inside the barn. Growing up on a hilly West Virginia farm, my dad prohibited pets inside our house.
At that time, my dad was the President of the Farmersville Rotary Club and was entitled to attend the Rotary International Convention. He brought his wife (my mother) and me to the convention’s location.
It was NEW YORK CITY-!
My mother found her friend who could care for Travel while we were in NYC.
Upon the arrival at her friend’s farm, I carried Travel out of my family’s 1957 Chevrolet and looked around. Then I lowered him to the ground. Suddenly, Travel zoomed into a cornfield.
Damn, my deafness. The friend’s dogs barked to cause Travel to run away. We searched for him and gave up one hour later since my mother believed that Travel would return.
On the following day, we left for NYC.
One week later, we returned to Farmersville, and my mother called her friend to check about Travel. No luck.
Six months later, in December, Travel was not seen again, so we moved to a new home in Dayton, Ohio (17 miles away).
One or two years later, the cat appeared on the back porch of my Dayton house. It looked like Travel. We fed it food and water while pondering whether it was Travel. On the following day, it came back to the porch. Then I dug pictures and found the picture of me carrying Travel that could match the cat. But the cat did not return on the following day.
So we lost Travel.
I should have taken this cat to the basement until we decided whether to keep it, but it was too late …
If Facebook or social media had existed in 1959 or earlier, someone could have easily found Travel while we were in NYC.
From that day on, I totally believed that cats could return at any time. There were so many similar stories.
Click on Can Cats Find Their Way Home?
Ironically, Travel was my last cat until my wife and I adopted Blackie at the shelter in 1986 (27 years later.)