It's hard when a pet runs away because you do not get closure. You are left wondering what happened to your furry friend. Twelve years ago, Angelo and Shelley Castellino found themselves in this position when their tabby cat Butters disappeared from their San Diego home.
Butters surprised everyone and defied the odds by turning up in Blythe, California, which is 216 miles from San Diego. Thanks to his microchip, Riverside County Animal Services Officer Dalton Churchwell was able to contact Angel and Shelley to reunite them with their prodigal feline. The couple had since moved to Seattle.
Angelo and Shelley had long given up hope of ever seeing Butters again. "I thought he was dead," Angelo told ABC7. "I thought he was someone's meal."
He went missing in 2011 and they did everything they could to find him. "Butters was a very adventurous cat, and he liked to go outside a lot, and he had learned how to use the dog door," Angelo recalled. "And one day, he never returned. We went looking for him and our assumption was the coyotes got him because there's a canyon nearby, and we didn't much think about it after that except that we were sad he was gone."
Angelo and Shelley moved to Seattle with Butters’ brother, Barnacles. On October 1, 2023, their wedding anniversary, they got a call they never expected. Dalton found Butters in his backyard. Volunteer Larry Randolph working with Animal Solutions Konnection accompanied Butters on the airplane to reunite with his family.
"It is amazing, and we almost think it was meant to be," Larry mused. "You're talking about the area of Blythe, where it's in the desert, where we have only two employees out there, and the cat decided to jump in his backyard."
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Shelley and Angelo are thrilled and thankful to have their cat back. They urge everyone to microchip their pets. "Our prodigal kitty has come home," she said. "I cannot stress enough how important it is to get your kitty cats and your doggies chipped." No one knows what grand adventures Butters had those 12 years, but he is happy to be home with his humans and brother.
