A Guelph cat is back home after a harrowing journey to Toronto

If Ruby the cat could talk, what a story she’d tell.

A Guelph couple is over the moon after their five-year-old black was returned after being missing for 26 days.

Emily Rutledge and Crystal Chilvers think that Ruby escaped their home during a late May thunderstorm. They said they were very concerned because Ruby was an indoor cat who never went outside.

Rutledge and Chilvers were guests on The Mike Farwell Show and said when they noticedRuby was missing they searched the home to no avail. Chilvers said it was around that time their children arrived home at which point the search began in earnest.

“We actually all went out. One of them (the children) went with their dad and went off in one direction and then the rest of us went another direction. One stayed home. We just ran everywhere,” they said. “We just moved in January. We went back to the old house to see if maybe she went there.”

They soon called it a night and in the morning resumed the search as well as began putting up posters in the neighbourhood.

The couple said they did receive a few leads that ultimately led nowhere.

Then out of the blue, Rutledge said they got a call from the microchip company who said their cat’s chip had been scanned and gave them a number to call.

“So we called this number and it was a lovely woman named Alisha who said, ‘Hey, I found your cat.’ And, we were like, ‘Cool, can we have her back?’ And she was like, ‘Ya. You’re in Guelph right?’ And were like, ‘Yeah, where are you?’ and she said, ‘I’m in Toronto.'”

At first the couple thought this might be some kind of scam. There is no way a house cat could make it from Guelph to Toronto unscathed.

“So, I called the vet office to verify the chip number,” Chilvers said. “I then called the Humane Society to ask if this sounds like something that could happen. And they gave us scenarios were cats have gotten into cars or people have picked up cats and taken them in cars or gotten on a stopped train.”

Chilvers went on to say their home does have train tracks nearby so, that is certainly an option.

They took Ruby to their vet to make sure she was ok and were given a clean bill of health.

Ruby is now back home, living her best life with her loving family.