While travelling to the Massachusetts cape with their 2 cats in the car, a couple found themselves in a terrifying position; trapped in their vehicle after it rolled!
Photo: Facebook/Wareham Animal Control Division of DNR
They were driving southbound on Route 25 in Wareham on August 17th. When a medical emergency caused them to lose control, the car rolled and flipped onto it’s side, landing into the nearby woods.
When emergency crews arrived onsite they found the couple trapped in the car and worked quickly to extract them from the mangled wreck. The couple were also very concerned about their 2 cats that had been in carriers in the back seat.
Photo: Facebook/Wareham Animal Control Division of DNR
Unfortunately while one cat was pulled out unharmed, the other had escaped after his carrier broke open in the accident. Fire and police crews searched the nearby woods but were unable to find the second cat.
The man and woman, both in their mid-70’s, suffered numerous injuries and spent the next 5 days in the hospital. If their airbags hadn’t deployed, it may have been much worse.
When they were well enough to be released, the first thing they did was meet officers from the Wareham Animal Control and Natural Resources department at the scene of the crash. The goal was to find their cat, a black and white male named Gussy.
Photo: Facebook/MA.Lost.Pets
No matter the chances or how slim they may be, they would NOT walk away from their fur-baby. Fortunately, they had a “LoCATer” tracking device that would detect the transmitter on Gussy’s collar.
Beginning near Route 25 and Tihonet Road, they carefully began searching the woods and cranberry bogs that surrounded the crash site. Sadly, they had no luck.
The Natural Resources officers also refused to give up and attached the tracking device to a 4-wheeler to cover more ground. As they went further and further, they neared a local A.D. Makepeace Company about a mile away. It was then that a signal appeared!
Photo: Facebook/Wareham Animal Control Division of DNR
They alerted the frantic cat parents right away and they all met up at the 2,000 acre cranberry farm. They walked the area and found a stronger signal coming from an old building in the complex.
This is when Gussy popped his head out of a hole in the structure’s walls and meowed to his family!
Immediately bursting with joy and tears of relief, the couple was overwhelmed at the site of their cat alive so far from the site he’d disappeared a week earlier.
Photo: Facebook/Wareham Animal Control Division of DNR
The farm employees were happy to help the search party and opened the building for them to retrieve the cat. Gussy was hiding out under the floor of the building and was still scared from the ordeal. Who knows what he went through alone in the cranberry bogs and forest for a week!
Photo: Facebook/Wareham Animal Control Division of DNR
Officer Cheryl Gorveatt-Dill and his happy cat mom crawled under the floor and were able to lay hands on Gussy.
Photo: Facebook/Wareham Animal Control Division of DNR
He was surprisingly uninjured but his purrents loaded him into a carrier, each of them holding it with both hands, and planned a visit to the vet to confirm.
Photo: Facebook/Wareham Animal Control Division of DNR
Wareham Animal Control shared the happy ending on their Facebook page as well. They certainly went the “extra mile” for this dedicated rescue mission!
“This search was nothing short of a miracle for the owners and none of us can believe where the cat ended up in relation to where the accident occurred!!! We could not be happier to reunite the owners with their beloved cat, safe and uninjured. Thank you all that helped!!”
Photo: Facebook/Wareham Animal Control Division of DNR
Such a miracle that the missing cat was found safe. Wonderful story.
I am so glad sweet little Gussy is okay and back home with his furrever family!
It proves it pays to get your cat microchip pedi, collared and locator tagged, even if it’s an indoor cat! You never know what may happen.
An excellent cautionary reminder!
Thanks for sharing such an encouraging, happy story!
Totally concur about the Locator tags – my two are confined to the house and garden, but both wear these tags (I’m in the UK) and they work brilliantly if the little monkeys are hiding somewhere clever and I can’t immediately find them – saves me lots of anxiety ?. The cats don’t mind them at all. NB VERY IMPORTANT to attach them only to proper safety collars with a snaplock that will break free if the collar gets hooked on anything or the cat gets its leg caught in the collar ( in which case it’s easy to find the missing collar ?).
Whoops – this is the link:
https://mytabcat.com/
bless those wonderful helpers that found Gussy! i’m so glad that he is back with his family and glad everyone is ok! what a wonderful story!
So awesome the Natural Resources officers didn’t give up their hope! And what a neat invention, such a collar. To be honest, I’ve never heard of those before
#NeverGiveUp, I´m so happy precious tux boy Gussy´s back home with his human parents and with his kitty brofur or sisfur!!! ??????This is my feelgood rescue story on my FB pages, but I had to post it in my public group (posting on pages often doesn´t work anymore)
Thank goodness he was found and so grateful to all who helped bring him home to his loving family.