Hobbes the cat get's some well deserved rest after showing up at a Nanaimo home on Saturday after going missing months earlier at Kennedy Lake. (submitted by Courtney Irving)

By Jordan Davidson

homeward bound

Victoria cat missing near Ucluelet reunited with owner in Nanaimo

Nov 1, 2022 | 6:00 PM

NANAIMO — A heart-warming story about one cat’s journey across Vancouver Island had a happy ending.

Hobbes the cat lives in Victoria, but escaped and fled into the woods by Kennedy Lake, near Ucluelet, during a road trip with his owner and son this past summer. Despite searches for him in the days following, Hobbes’ family had to leave and thought their cat was gone.

Three and half months later, Hobbes strolled into the home of Courtney Irving off Hammond Bay Rd., completing a 170 kilometre journey back to civilization. Irving said it was Friday, Oct. 28 around 7 p.m. when her roommates saw Hobbes outside their home,

“There was just this screaming, meowing, a sking and bones scruffy looking cat out on the driveway. They came back to their house and opened the door…and he just walked in. You could tell her just needed something.”

Irving said Hobbes devoured the food and water they brought him before going out for the night, leaving Hobbes in the care of her roommates.

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Hobbes eventually got out, but came back to the home around midnight and meowed at the door until they let him in again.

Irving said Hobbes was very defensive of his food, and would growl at their other animals when they tried to get close. (Submitted photo/Courtney Irving)

“You could tell he was very scared…when he was eating his food, and we have two other little kittens here right now, and when he was eating his food he was growling because he didn’t want any animals taking food from him. You could tell he had been out for a very long time.”

Irving took Hobbes to the Nanaimo SPCA the following day, admitting to feeling “her heart sink a little bit”, as she wasn’t sure what the cat’s fate would be.

When she found out his owner was located via details on a microchip embedded with Hobbes, Irving was overjoyed.

Animal care attendant at the Nanaimo SPCA Kevanna said checks for microchips and tattoos are the first thing they do whenever any animal is brought in.

“Every animal intake we check for a tattoo and we check for a microchip. So we microchip scanned Hobbes, and it came back with a microchip, so we traced it in the computer and it went back to his owner.”

Luckily all the information on Hobbes’ microchip was up-to-date and they were able to contact his owner, who made the drive up the next day and they were reunited on Sunday, Oct. 30.

The owner said they were at a boat launch at Kennedy Lake with Hobbes sleeping in the back of their vehicle, when something, the owners suspect the bark of a dog, spooked him and caused him to run into the woods.

The devastated owner and his son spent six days at the lake looking for him without any sightings.

With heavy hearts, they decided to move on.

A beautiful reunion with his owner after Hobbes was missing for almost four months in the Vancouver Island wilderness. (Nanaimo SPCA)

“They felt very devastated because he was kind of lost in a very rural area up there, it was kind of heavily forested where they were, so they just kept going and his owner said he felt like he was never going to see him again,” said Kevanna.

The staff at the Nanaimo SPCA were very happy and emotional to see Hobbes reunited with his owners.

“It was really nice, it definitely warmed a lot of our hearts here and brought some tears to the eyes of everyone,” said Kevanna. “Hobbes was very happy to see his dad and his dad was very happy to see Hobbes.”

She said stories about animals making incredible journeys like this are not uncommon, with another Victoria cat named Miri making its way to Nanaimo in July.

Kevanna said stories like this are a great reminder about the importance of microchips for your pets.

“Keep your microchips up to date with your current information, because if his microchip wasn’t registered, or if his information wasn’t up to date in the system, it would have been a lot harder to get into contact with him. He did everything right, that microchip really came in handy.”

How Hobbes got all the way from the west coast of Vancouver Island to the east coast remains a mystery.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow