Finding Nico, the Lost Declawed Cat

Nico, a long-haired declawed pet cat, ran out of his home on February 20th. Two weeks later I saw the lost cat fliers his owner, Katarina, put out in our neighborhood.

Not only was Nico more in danger because he was declawed, but also because Katarina had moved into the neighborhood just two weeks before he got out. He was in unfamiliar territory. And Katarina wasn’t planning on staying long – she is moving out of this area again by the end of this month. The good news is that there are TNR’d colonies in the area already, and neighbors in the past have been very responsive to lost cat fliers.

Katarina agreed to put traps in her yard to try to catch Nico, and to TNR any other cats that we trapped in the meantime.

Katarina kept trapping an ear tipped black cat, which was a good sign. But she also trapped two intact cats right away.

The first was Bailey. I have to include his “before TNR” photo because his expression is priceless.

He is feral and cleaned up nicely with his new ear tip.

Then she trapped Meredith, who just by coincidence looked a lot like Nico at first.  She is also feral. She was TNReturned, and Katarina still sees these two cats here and there in her alley.

Then for awhile, nothing happened, although Katarina set traps every night. She posted a lot of fliers, and received a lot of texts and calls with sightings. Meaghan, another neighbor, contacted me and offered to set traps in her yard. She started that this week.

In the meantime, Katarina got a call from a neighbor the next block from her who said he saw Nico the other week. Then this week he saw fliers from a woman that said she found Nico. It turned out she lived in his same building, and Nico had followed her into her apartment on Sunday.

They called Katarina and she brought him home today.

He’s as friendly as ever, purring and wanting attention, responding to his name. Just look at that face.

It’s like he never left.

It’s hard to tell because he’s so fluffy, but he is definitely very skinny now, and a bit dirty and matted. Katarina is going to take him to a vet for a full check-up. It seems like he’s been outside this entire time. The neighbors think he may have found shelter underneath a tarp covering a boat next door to them. Who knows? But he’s a survivor and his story has a happy ending.

We are also so happy that in the meantime we were able to get two other cats who needed to be TNR’d and vetted. We also will continue trapping with Meaghan and any other interested neighbors to see if we can get any other cats in the area.