Ava Marks of Canton, Ohio is a crazy little cat girl who only wanted one thing this Christmas: to be reunited her lost kitten, Shiva.
This past November, the adopted kitten of 6 months went missing in the rural area in which she lives.
The Marks family did what they could to bring the lost black kitten back to safety, hoping to reunite her with her adopted littermate, Simba, and the little girl who missed her most.
Simba and Shiva had been with the family since they were adopted at 8 weeks of age from a local rescue in their area this past August.
Photo Courtesy of Fox 8 Cleveland News
The Marks set out on foot in search of their lost kitten, hoping to find her shortly after her disappearance.
Worse yet, the Marks live in an area that is known for coyotes and they feared that sweet little Shiva may have met her plight with one of the wild creatures.
“We kind of gave up looking for her after about a week or so with coyotes and things out where we live,” said Monique Marks, Ava’s mother.
Ava felt like she needed a miracle that only one person could give her this time of year, and that was none other than Santa Claus.
“Dear Santa, Can you find my cat Shiva please. I really miss her. She is black and she is a kitty. From Ava Marks.”
Image Courtesy of Fox 8 Cleveland News
It was all she could think to do to try and bring the cat back to her that she missed dearly.
“She wrote a letter to Santa asking to find her cat, because that’s literally the only thing she wanted for Christmas,” Monique told Fox 8 Cleveland News.
Two weeks later, Ava got her Christmas miracle when the folks at Angels for Animals of Canfield, Ohio called with the shocking surprise.
Little Shiva had been brought to Angels for Animals, and upon scanning her microchip, her identity was confirmed.
“They called Saturday night and let us know she was there. Actually, my husband answered the phone over speaker phone in the car; our daughter’s face lit up.”
While we don’t exactly know of Shiva’s whereabouts in the time of her absence, or how she found the means to survive, we do know if not for her microchip the chance of her being reunited would have been slim to none.
The Marks also have microchips for their Shiva’s cat brother, Simba, as well as their two dogs.
Moral of the story? Sometimes you just gotta believe in the magic of the holiday spirit.
“(Ava) thinks he helped,” said Monique. “She said ‘I know he’s not the one who brought her to Angels for Animals,’ but she thinks he helped her.”
The very next day, Angels for Animals shared the happy tail on their Facebook page, not only to spread joy to fellow animal lovers, but also to serve as a friendly reminder to always have your pets properly microchipped:
“Microchipping is the best and cheapest insurance you can buy for your pet…Happy endings like this are priceless.”
REMEMBER: ADOPT, DON’T SHOP & SPAY AND NEUTER!
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I do believe in miracles.
My mother once prayed with a girl who cried necause she lost her precious little bead on a floor full of cracks. And you know what? They’ve found it. If miracles happen for a kid who lost a bead, why not for a kid who lost his cat friend? ♥
Although Gizzy, Thori & now angel Sisi´ve been pure indoor cats & we live on the 5th floor of an appartment (where the house administration does NOT allow to put a cat net on the balcony, the landlord would, but not them) Gizzy has an old tattoo that his former mummy Anna got him when he´s been spayed/neutered, and Thori´s wearing a tag with his ID number on his collar, both´re registered at @Tasso, the bigger of 2 free pet registers in Germany, and Angel Sisi who never ever even entered the balcony also had a tag & has been registered there, the smaller pet register´s “Findefix” from the @Tierschutzbund here, on the way to the vet, either by taxi or with the pet ambulance, cats can eventually escape from the carrier, or maybe there´s a fire on your floor & you have to evacuate (in our scyscraper here it´s been burning several times yet, but fortunately never on our floor) & the cats escape somehow from the carrier, then it can help you reunite with them when they´re microchipped or tattoed AND registered, here YOU have to do this, the vet doesn´t do it, unfortunately many people forget that, then the microchip or tattoo (on older cats) is absolutely worthless, I´m so happy the lil girl got her beloved kitty back!!!