BLACK MOGGY ‘RIVERWAY BOB’ RETURNED TO HIS FAMILY AFTER 11-MONTH ABSENCE

A lost black cat – found hiding by the River Medina in Newport – has been returned to his owners after almost a year’s absence. Fortunately, the escapee – nicknamed Riverway Bob – had been microchipped, enabling his previous address to be located. The cat escaped from his new home after his owners had changed address. The story of Riverway Bob has been told by Helen Luff of Friends of the Animals… Helen explains:

“We started seeing a black cat nervously hiding in our car park at Riverway about 3 weeks ago. He looked to us as if he was abandoned or lost as there is no housing nearby as it’s an industrial site with the river behind. “We could see a gap in the fencing which he was using as a doorway to and from our carpark. We put some biscuits out for him and moved away, and he came over and ate them very fast and disappeared again. We needed to gain his trust and gave him the name Riverway Bob after the book and film A Street Car Called Bob. “It took over a week before he allowed us to touch his nose and eat in our company. We put a bed out for him, which he started sleeping in, but his face said he had had enough of this life.”

Helen continues:

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“Everyday, we changed his water and fed him then came the day he allowed us to stroke him, which was very emotional for us but happy. We could see he was neutered and hoped he may be microchipped. “We were over the moon when our scanner bleeped and a number appeared on the screen. “We contacted Niki at Feline Welfare, who checked the chip number, and we got the details we didn’t think would happen.”

Helen discovered Riverway Bob’s name was ‘Nigel’, telling Island Echo:

“It seems Bob’s name was actually Nigel, and he is 13 years old. When his family were contacted, they couldn’t believe it as she thought he had died as he had been missing 11 months! “He had escaped after a move and had got out after 4 days, and they had frantically looked for him but had no sightings. He was originally from Cats Protection at the age of 3. “As he was nervous, we thought we would need to use an automatic trap kindly lent to us by Nikki but in the end placing his food in the cat carrier we were using as his bed, we managed to close the door before he had a chance to escape.”

Helen was pleased to see Bob safely back home again, saying:

“He has now been reunited with his family and is grounded for the foreseeable future. “Being microchipped has got him back home and, although we will miss Bob, we won’t miss the sleepless nights over him being alone without the comfort and love of his family.”

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