Reunited after 6 months: Steven the black cat is finally found

A cat owner was finally reunited with her beloved pet – six months later.

On October 1, Liezel Vermeulen was about to give up. It was the birthday of her beloved cat, Steven, who would be turning seven years old. For six months, she had done everything in her power to find him after he went missing, with no luck.

She was collecting his things to donate when she received a call from a woman on Thursday, October 13 that had seen one of the many posters Vermeulen had put up around the neighbourhood.

“It was extremely frustrating, my posters kept being removed from the lamp posts I put them up on.” Vermeulen had been posting on every Facebook group she could find, going door to door and putting up posters on lamp posts and notice boards across her old neighbourhood.

What made it more difficult, Vermeulen had moved since Steven went missing, so she had to make the trip from Vereeniging to Pretoria whenever she had some free time so she could search for Steven.

Finding Steven came down to his dental records. A short time before Steven went missing, he had one of his front teeth extracted. Vermeulen said that one of the difficult parts of trying to find him is that black cats often look similar, and she had previously had some leads that turned out not to be Steven.

When she received the call on October 13, she asked the woman to check his teeth, and luckily it was a match. “I also asked her to call him Steven, because he is quite smart with knowing his name […] when she called back the next day she said he reacted when she called his name.

“As soon as I picked him up he started purring, as if he recognised me.” But Vermeulen was not done yet, as any responsible pet parent, she had to go check his microchip just to be completely sure that it was Steven – and it was eventually a match, Steven had been found after six months and over a gruelling winter.

Vermeulen said when they got home her dogs immediately recognised him, and vice versa.

“I tell everyone that it is amazing that God kept him safe every single day for six months for me. We had a horrible winter, and a terrible raining season.

“I was so surprised that he had fended for himself, I have had him since he was born on my bed, and he has been my Steven since then. He has never had to take care of himself, he has had such a sheltered life.

“I cannot express how thankful I am for the community out there, my one post had over 600 or 700 shares, and people phoned me and messaged me.”

She was even recognised while searching for Steven one day. After spotting a black cat and approaching it to check if it was him, its owner recognised Steven’s story from Facebook. “It’s the most surreal feeling that so many strangers tried to help me, that so many people knew about this story, and still months later.

“Even if it didn’t turn out in my favour, Pretoria has been the most amazing group of animal lovers. I got so many messages about black cats that people have spotted.”

ALSO READ: Pit Bull federation opposed to breed ban

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram