‘Our family couldn’t be happier’: Family cat returned after being adopted out

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – A few days after a Calgary woman issued a plea on social media to help track down her family cat, the two-year-old tabby is back at home.

Tanis Behnke posted on Facebook last week explaining that one of her kids mistakenly let the cat out of the house. The cat, Maggie, was picked up by animal services and after a few days of not hearing from any family to claim the cat, she was put up for adoption and a new family scooped her up.

“[The city] said that she had been adopted already and there was nothing they could do for me at that time,” Behnke said in a previous interview.

Behnke’s Facebook post asked the new owner, should they see the post, to consider giving Maggie back to the family–and that the family would reimburse any and all adoption fees that the owner may have paid.

The family, which recently moved to Calgary from Grande Prairie, says everyone is happy to have Maggie back.

“We are so unbelievably grateful to say we have our Maggie back with us!!!” reads a comment from Behnke on her original Facebook post.

“Thank you to the family that adopted Maggie for reuniting us with her. There are some pretty amazing people in this world! Thank you to everyone for sharing this post and for all your kind words! Our family couldn’t be happier.”

And while this particular story has a happy ending, the city’s animal services department says it serves as a reminder to make sure all of your pets are licensed and microchipped.

Shannon Pochipinski with Animal Services says they check for identification as soon as a pet is picked up.

“If it’s wearing its tag then we can go into our database system and enter the animal license. And then we’ll be able to have the name of the current owner, their contact information, so we can contact them and reunite them with their pet. And it’s the same for a tattoo or a microchip.”

If there’s no chip, collar with a license, or tattoo, the pet is held in the city shelter for four days. If the pet does have ID on it, it’s held for 10 days.

“Our animal health techs [then] take pictures of the dogs and cats and those are displayed on our website,” she explained. “Our main goal is to return the impounded animals to their owners.”

She adds that it’s quite challenging for city staff to track down pet owners when those animals don’t have and identification or they aren’t licensed and registered with the city. If no one claims the animal within the respective timeframe, the pets are checked over by a vet and will undergo a behavioural assessment.

Then, assuming there are no other concerns with those pets, they’re posted on the adoptable pets page of the city site.

Pochipinski says adoptions from the city are final, so in a situation like that of the Maggie Behnke the city would not have reached out to the new owner to ask for the animal back.

-with files from Megan McPhaden