TRURO, N.S. — Patches had a rough start in life, but he was on his way to a loving home when things went downhill again. He slipped out of his harness and ran off.
“He has someone willing to give him a great home and he deserves that,” said Lindsay Russell. “I’m really hoping someone will spot him and let me know where he is.”
She was working with former Colchester County animal control officer Elsie DeBay when they got a little money to put into a trap-neuter-release program for feral cats.
“An elderly woman in Bible Hill was feeding a female cat who had three kittens,” she recalled. “We trapped them, had them tested and spayed and neutered, and homed two of them. Mum and Patches were released, and the woman kept feeding them. She said the cats were the only reason she got out of bed.”
When the elderly woman’s health deteriorated, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to return home, Russell visited her in hospital and told her she would make sure the cats were cared for. The mother cat was placed in a home, but it took more than a year before Patches was comfortable enough to stop hiding from people.
Russell arranged a meet and greet between the cat and the people interested in him, and it was a good match.
“They were moving into a new place so once the move was done I was going to deliver him,” she said. “He’s very stressy in a kennel so I decided to put a harness and leash on him and carry him. It was fine until I opened the sliding door of the van. The sound scared him and he twisted out of my arms. I went to pick him up and he backed out of the harness and went running from Golf Street toward Kiwanis Pond.”
She put posters up around nearby streets and posted online but only one sighting has been reported.
“I feel so bad for him,” she said. “He doesn’t know the area so he’ll be frightened. I’m hoping someone will see him and let me know.”
Patches may also head toward Bible Hill, near Valley, where he grew up.
Sightings can be reported to Russell by calling or texting 902-902-221-2136.
