By Emma Jolliff
When Christchurch shook with its devastating earthquake in February last year, Bev Harris' cat fled.
That was 16 months ago and, despite putting notices around the suburb and on Trade Me, the cat hadn't been seen since.
That was until his owner got a call on Friday.
The cat, called Boy, reacquainted himself with the house he used to live in 16 months ago.
He disappeared after the earthquake on February 22, 2011.
Already he looks right at home, thanks to a call from the Cats Protection League on Friday.
“I got the phone call saying ‘we think we've got your cat that has been missing since February 22’, and I thought, no, it can't be,” says Bev Harris.
After Boy went missing, she put posters around the neighbourhood and an ad on Trade Me.
“People have been lovely. They've called and said ‘I think I’ve seen him’, so I've sat in people's gardens. Mike has sat in people's gardens calling him.”
Four months ago she gave up hope.
“I just thought it had been too long. There's just no way, so I just ceased.”
But this week someone handed Boy in.
“A lady with five children came in with a cage with a black and white cat that the children had called Lucy,” says Gyanesha Milne of the Cats Protection League. “I looked in the cage and thought, that's not a Lucy.”
A friend made the connection with Ms Harris' photo on Trade Me
“I went ‘oh my God it's him’, and then had to search for Boy's owners' phone numbers because they had given up,” says Ms Milne.
He was in good physical condition and seemed emotionally relaxed.
Ms Harris thinks it will give hope to others whose pets went missing after the earthquake.
“Him coming back, it is that positive,” says the cat owner. “We have had so much negative; it has been such a terrible time here.”
Ms Harris has always hoped that Boy was having a good life somewhere. Now, she can ensure that he is.
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