Lost cat microchipped in B.C. turns up southwestern Ontario

An animal lover in Wallaceburg, Ont., is trying to find the owner of a cat with an "exquisite personality" who appears to be a long way from home.

Pet groomer Mary Ann Holland has been caring for the dilute tortoiseshell cat since it was found between Chatham and Sarnia.

Holland advertised locally to try and find the cat's owner, and a woman who had lost a cat matching its description, contacted her. 

"So they came and looked, and they said, 'No, that's not our Peanut,'" she said.

But the woman offered to take the cat to the vet to see if it was microchipped. 

"She was gone 45 minutes, and I was like, 'Why is she taking so long?'" Holland said.

"She came back with a funny look on her face."

The cat, the vet discovered, was registered to a now-defunct rescue organization in British Columbia.

Holland knows nothing about the organization and wonders how the cat, who she's named B.C., came to live in Ontario.

"I used to watch The Littlest Hobo all the time, and I'm like 'Where do you go?'" she said, referring to the TV program about a nomadic German Shepherd that aired in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

'I am queen'

"She doesn't have fleas. Her skin's not roughed up.  She has, you know, nothing to tell us anything except for her exquisite personality."

Several people have offered to adopt B.C., Holland said, but she is hoping to find her original owners.

A company that specializes in pet microchipping contacted Holland after her CBC interview, she said, and was able to provided additional information on the animal, including a name: "Sister."

"I will cry," Holland said, when asked how hard it will be to let her go.

Holland already has six cats at her shop and two at home, she said.

"Someone needs a cat more than I do."

For now B.C./Sister enjoys resting on a big soft pillow behind the desk in her shop. 

"She just sits there and says, 'I am here. I am queen,'" Holland said.