Month: April 2020

OTTAWA — The federal government is providing rent relief to businesses that can’t afford to pay their landlords at a time when their operations are seriously curtailed or shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal help, expected to lower rent by 75 per cent for affected small businesses, will be provided in partnership with the provinces and territories, which have jurisdiction over rents.

The Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance will provide forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners to cover 50 per cent of rent payments by eligible small business tenants experiencing financial hardship in April, May and June.

PM promises $9B aid package for students

 

The loans will be forgiven if the mortgaged property owner agrees to reduce the eligible small business tenants’ rent by at least 75 per cent for the three corresponding months under a rent forgiveness agreement, which will include a pledge not to evict the tenant while the agreement is in place.

The small business tenant would cover the remainder, up to 25 per cent of the rent.

Affected small business tenants are those paying less than $50,000 per month in rent and who have temporarily ceased operations, or have experienced at least a 70 per cent drop in pre-COVID-19 revenues. The program is also available to charities and non-profit organizations.

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The federal Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. will administer and deliver the program.

Provinces and territories will cover up to 25 per cent of costs, subject to terms of agreements with Ottawa. They will also ensure implementation of the measures.

It is expected the new program will be operational by mid-May, with commercial property owners lowering the rents of their small business tenant’s payable for the months of April and May, retroactively, and for June.

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With the first of the month just around the corner, Finance Minister Bill Morneau appealed to landlords to be flexible until the program is up and running.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Friday that Ottawa would soon “have more to say” about rent relief for larger businesses.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business applauded many elements of the new program, but had some reservations.

The federation is concerned the program may be overly complicated and too reliant on landlords to administer, the group’s executive vice-president, Laura Jones, said in a statement.

Landlords might not bother with the program if it means absorbing some losses, even if their tenants badly need the help, the federation said. In addition, the threshold of 70 per cent in lost revenue might disqualify hard-hit businesses from getting help.

“This is welcome news but many business owners with dramatic revenue losses will not qualify for the program,” Jones said.

NDP MP Gord Johns, the critic for small businesses, echoed those concerns, and said the announcement falls short of the business-saving measures owners have been hoping for.

“For business owners whose landlords chose to not chip in and sign on, they still face the very real threat of eviction through no fault of their own,” he said.

Morneau said it’s in the best interests of landlords and business tenants to take part, since both are struggling under the public health conditions.

“The landlords also have been going through challenges because in many cases businesses have not been able to pay,” he said. “So we think this provides a very good incentive for both parties.”

PM: Working to help as many businesses as possible

Trudeau said the government is working to help as many businesses as possible, but reminded people of the unprecedented crisis Canada is experiencing.

“Unfortunately this is something we are grappling with,” he said. “We know certain businesses are extremely hard-hit.”

Small businesses also have access to credit to help them through the crisis, he noted.

Financial institutions have provided interest-free credit of up to $40,000 to eligible businesses, and up to $10,000 is forgivable if the loan is repaid by the end of 2022.

Trudeau said it’s not clear yet how the country will move to reopen the economy, so the relief measures the government has put in place will be adjusted as things unfold.

 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2020.

The island of Sicily wants you to wake up and smell the cannoli once COVID-19 lockdown measures are lifted.

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The regional government is spending the equivalent of $75 million to attract visitors to the warm and sunny area. Sicily will pay half the cost of airfare, plus it’s offering hotel vouchers while waiving fees to museums and historic sites, the U.K. Times reported. 

Watch the video above for more details about Sicily’s plan to revive its tourism industry.

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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sidestepped questions Wednesday on whether companies with offshore bank accounts will be eligible for emergency COVID-19 aid after previously telling MPs they won’t be.

Trudeau was pressed by MPs during the House of Commons’ special committee on the COVID-19 pandemic after he said Tuesday that the government will help those who need it, “but those who avoid taxes or evade taxes will not receive help.”

During Wednesday’s in-person sitting of the committee, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet asked the government for assurances that companies that do not pay their fair share of taxes will be identified and deemed ineligible for emergency support programs.

“Companies who do practice tax avoidance will face consequences in our system,” Trudeau responded in French. “That will continue to be the case even when it’s not a pandemic.”

Watch: It’s easier to get rich in Canada than America. But it comes at a cost. Story continues below video.

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MPs also gathered in the chamber to debate the Liberal government’s third piece of emergency legislation to approve $9 billion in funding for financial relief for students amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. 

With $155 billion already approved for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, the opposition urged the government to crack down on companies that avoid taxes, some by using offshore tax havens, urging the government to make tax dodgers ineligible for financial aid. 

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh picked up on the Bloc leader’s line of questioning, using Loblaw Companies Ltd. as an example of a business that uses international tax system loopholes to avoid paying more Canadian taxes.

The company is Canada’s largest food and drug retailer. It was the subject of scrutiny last year after the federal government pledged $12 million to upgrade its refrigeration systems to higher efficiency models — after the company posted a $754 million profit.

Recently, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned a 2018 tax court case that ordered Loblaw Companies Ltd. to pay $368 million in taxes. The federal government has been ordered to pay the company $1.8 million to cover legal costs related to the case.

Trudeau responded by chiding the NDP leader for suggesting that grocery store workers in Loblaw stores should be punished “because of behaviour of what their head office has done.” 

Singh responded later, saying it’s “unreal that this government thinks it’s OK to allow a company like Loblaws to use offshore tax havens.” The NDP leader said the problem is that the rules that allow companies evade taxes are legal, and the government isn’t doing enough to close loopholes. 

“That’s a choice. That’s a decision this government is making,” Singh said. He explained that one way of recouping this lost taxation is asking companies registered in offshore tax havens to remove their money from that jurisdiction and move it home if they want emergency aid.

Some European countries, such as Denmark, France, and Poland, have declared that companies registered in offshore tax havens will not be eligible for government assistance during the coronavirus pandemic.

A 2019 analysis by the parliamentary budget officer suggested the Canada Revenue Agency missed $25 billion in lost corporate income tax revenue because of offshore tax haven loopholes.

When the subject was posed to the prime minister last week, Trudeau said that the government has its priorities set on helping workers “and not the company.”

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MONTREAL ― The COVID-19 economic crisis has shuttered our cinemas and airlines, thrown restaurants and bars into disarray and is currently busy running up a heck of a government deficit.

But apparently it can’t derail Canada’s housing markets, many of which can expect to see rapid house price growth once the outbreak passes, several recent forecasts have predicted.

Despite a steep drop in sales this year, the average home price in Canada will be 6.1 per cent higher at the end of this year than it was a year earlier, TD Bank said in a forecast issued this week.

Watch: What’s happening to Canada’s housing markets in the pandemic? Story continues below.

 

Given that incomes are unlikely to rise much during this crisis, “affordability will deteriorate when you look at house prices,” the report’s author, economist Rishi Sondhi, conceded.

Sales may be falling, but the supply of homes on the market is falling with them, Sondhi said, which means the market balance isn’t shifting much.

Many people are hesitant to put their house on the market ― either because of concerns about the virus, or concerns about the health of the market.

“Sellers are moving to the sidelines just as rapidly as buyers are,” Sondhi told HuffPost Canada.

 

Still, TD’s forecast makes a few big assumptions. One is “that provinces take tentative steps towards re-opening their economies over the next month.”

Another is that the country won’t see a sudden rush of people who need to sell their homes quickly, thanks to the banks’ new mortgage deferral programs.

Not everyone agrees. At least one recent forecast says the country will likely see some “forced selling” in the housing market.

And what about the millions of Canadians who have lost work in this crisis? Won’t their plight affect house prices?

Like some other economists, Sondhi says that won’t have as much impact on the housing market as one would think.

That’s because, they say, the jobs lost in this crisis have disproportionately affected people in service industries ― think customer service reps and Starbucks baristas ― and these people overwhelmingly tend to rent.

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“While it is sad that these people skewed strongly to young and to part-time workers, for the housing industry, the impact of these presumably temporary job losses will be limited as these groups are much less likely to buy and sell real estate,” Phil Soper, president and CEO of real estate agency Royal LePage, said in a report earlier this month.

TD’s forecast sees Toronto house prices rising 7.8 per cent this year, compared to last year, while Vancouver will see 4.7 per cent growth. Things will look worse on the Prairies, TD predicted, where the oil slump will lead to a 4.7 per cent price decline in Alberta, and a 4.1 per cent drop in Saskatchewan.

“Sales are poised to plunge at an historic pace in April, while gradually recovering their lost steps in subsequent months as buyers remain cautious,” the report states. 

‘Uncomfortable zone’

In a separate report Wednesday, real estate services firm Altus Group predicted a more than 50 per cent drop in home sales in the April-June period this year, before bouncing back in the second half of 2020, to end the year at around 10 per cent below the previous year’s sales.

Although there is a “broad range of outcomes” possible in these uncertain times, ”it’s very unlikely we’ll see significantly declining house prices,” Altus Group vice-president and chief economist Peter Norman told HuffPost. 

“The odds are better that … we might be in a situation where they start to accelerate into the uncomfortable zone.”

He predicts price growth in the 5 to 10 per cent range for this year, because there will be many buyers who will be “ready to buy” once shutdown orders are lifted and social distancing rules start to be eased.

“We think this recession is going to be deep but quick, and the economy will recover quite quickly as soon as we substantially get through the health crisis,” he said.

OTTAWA —  The federal government has quietly broadened the eligibility rules for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) by allowing self-employed workers to earn $1,000 more than their monthly business expenses, and by expanding the benefit to include those who pay themselves through dividends.

The changes were posted to the CERB question and answer portion of the government website late last week, the same day HuffPost Canada asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau whether the government would expand program eligibility for self-employed workers.

Trudeau had no announcement to make that morning in response to the question, but he said the federal government would “continue to fill gaps.”

“We will continue to work on making sure that everyone who needs help gets it,” he said. 

Many sole proprietors had voiced concerns about being shut out of government assistance and unable to pay their bills.

On April 15, Trudeau announced that the CERB, a $2,000 monthly payment originally intended for those who had lost their jobs or were unable to work owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and mandated shutdowns, would be expanded to include “people making up to $1,000 a month.”

“Maybe you’re a volunteer firefighter or contractor who can pick up some shifts or you have a part-time job in a grocery store,” the prime minister said in making the announcement. “Even if you’re still working or you want to start working again, you probably need help in making ends meet. So if you earn $1,000 or less a month, you’ll now be able to apply for the CERB.”

Glenn Harrington, a wood furniture maker in Toronto, told HuffPost his store was forced to shut its doors, but his rent, insurance and equipment charges were still adding up to $5,000 each month.

“A thousand dollars a month for an individual isn’t bad, but for a business? They didn’t even make the criteria a little more?” he said at the time.

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Government officials initially told HuffPost that the $1,000 threshold was pre-tax money earned before expenses. The CERB application stated, to qualify, an individual “cannot have earned more than $1,000 in employment and/or self-employment income” without specifying if that was gross or net income.

Last Wednesday, Trudeau was still repeating that CERB was for someone “if you have a job but you’re only making up to $1,000 a month.” 

The government website now states, however, that business owners “should consider their net pre-tax income (gross income less expenses)” in calculating their earnings to determine whether they qualify for the CERB.

“It’s all still gross [income] just gross income after business expenses,” said Ashley Michnowski, a spokesperson for Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough.

The new guidelines also state that business owners who rely on dividends are eligible for the CERB, and their dividend income should be considered “as self-employment income provided it comes from non-eligible dividends (generally, those paid out of corporate income taxed at the small business rate).”

Trudeau pressed about self-employed workers

Trudeau and his cabinet ministers were asked five times about self-employed workers who pay themselves through dividends when Parliament met last Monday — three times by the Conservatives and twice by the Bloc Québécois. The Liberals sidestepped the questions.

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At one point, however, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau suggested decisions on eligibility were being made on a “case by case” basis.

“It  is true that there are situations where business owners do not give themselves a salary,” she said. “They pay themselves through surpluses and dividends. It is on a case-by-case basis, but the rules are clear: The individual must have an income of at least $5,000 in the previous year to qualify for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.”

The $5,000 remark relates to general eligibility. In order to qualify for the CERB, an individual must have had at least $5,000 in income in 2019 or in the past 12 months.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer noted the shortcomings of federal assistance for several small-business owners — “family businesses that receive dividends, self-employed people who own and operate businesses” — he asked whether Trudeau would “continue to broaden the eligibility criteria.”

The prime minister responded by saying the government has “helped the vast majority of companies and individuals” but realizes it needs “to keep refining” and improving.

“That is why I thank all members for making suggestions as we improve the programs,” he said.

Michnowski told HuffPost that the online FAQs were updated to “be more comprehensive” and that they “reflect a lot of the questions we are receiving from constituents and MPs pretty much daily at this point.”

TORONTO — The Canadian Football League (CFL) is asking the federal government for up to $150 million in financial assistance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie told The Canadian Press on Tuesday the league’s proposal involves three phases: $30 million now to manage the impact the novel coronavirus outbreak has had on league business; additional assistance for an abbreviated regular season; and up to another $120 million in the event of a lost 2020 campaign.

“We’re like so many other businesses across Canada,” Ambrosie said. “We’re facing financial pressures unlike anything we’ve seen before.

“Our best-case scenario is we’re almost certain to have to cancel games. But at worst if this crisis persists and large gatherings are prevented, we could lose the whole season and the types of losses we could incur would be devastating.”

If the season is wiped out, Ambrosie said the CFL’s long-term future would be in peril.

“One of the things, I think, that the CFL and all of us who love the league pride ourselves on is we’re striving to be very optimistic,” he said. “But to be realistic, the kinds of losses could have an effect on the future of this league.”

A federal official declined to comment on the league’s proposal. 

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The federal government already has introduced a $73-billion wage subsidy program to cover 75 per cent of wages for employers that have seen sharp declines in revenue since the novel coronavirus pandemic hit Canada hard last month.

The wage subsidy program makes up half the roughly $145 billion in federal spending on COVID-19 countermeasures, and will cause a ripple of changes for the millions of workers who have either lost their jobs or had their hours slashed due to the crisis.

Three of the CFL’s nine teams — Edmonton, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg —  are community-owned. The remaining six are owned privately.

Ambrosie said the CFL is an important part of Canada’s fabric. The CFL was founded in 1958 following the merger of two previous leagues. The Grey Cup was first presented to Canada’s football champion in 1909.

Unlike many other professional leagues with Canadian teams, the CFL mandates a minimum amount of Canadian content for its rosters. Twenty-one of 46 players to dress each game must be Canadian.

“I wake up every day reminded how important this game is to Canada,” Ambrosie said. “How big a part of Canada it’s been for now 107 Grey Cups and the 108th that would be played this year.

“How many Canadians have been positively affected by this great league and also how aligned we are with Canadian values. In so many ways we are so much like this country and we want to make sure we’re around for the next generation and the generations after that to benefit from what this league has stood for.”

The Grey Cup is scheduled for Nov. 22 in Regina. 

The CFL hasn’t given up on staging a 2020 season but it has postponed the start of training camps — which were to open next month. It has also pushed back the beginning of the regular season — which was to begin June 11 — to early July, at the earliest.

But many provincial governments have said there will be no sports events with large crowds this summer.

“No decisions have been made but it’s pointing us to a September start, at the earliest,” Ambrosie said.

“We’d love for things to stabilize and improve in the weeks to come and try to play sooner than that but there’s a lot pointing to September as being a reasonable person’s view of when we might be able to resume.

“But again there’s so much we don’t know at this point and so many unanswered questions that we’re just going to have let time march and then determine what’s best as we learn more.”

Ambrosie doesn’t see it as asking for a government handout. He wants the CFL to be able to give back to Canadians in other ways.

“We’ve been clear to the federal government we want to be accountable to taxpayers,” he said. “In all conversations we’ve talked about making sure the model would hold the league accountable to repaying Canadians back through community programs, tourism promotion, the Grey Cup, our digital channels.

“Anything and everything to repay the government we would be amendable to.”

This isn’t the first time the CFL has faced a financial crisis.

From 1993 to ’95, the CFL had teams in seven U.S. markets — Las Vegas, Sacramento, Memphis, Baltimore, Birmingham, Ala., Shreveport, La., and San Antonio. The expansion fees paid by the clubs helped keep the league operating.

In 1996, the CFL faced not having enough cash to pay Edmonton Eskimos and Toronto Argonauts players in the Grey Cup game. But the potential crisis was averted when Tim Hortons provided the league with extra funds.

In 2003, the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats met in the infamous Bankruptcy Bowl because neither franchise had an owner. The league did manage to secure new ownership for both clubs.

Some sports have suggested the idea of resuming play without fans. But Ambrosie said that’s a scenario that would be hard for the CFL to adopt because gate revenues are vitally important.

“It’s something we’ve explored but it isn’t a high-probability scenario,” Ambrosie said. “We’ve basically explored the landscape of all the things that sports are doing around the world and we’ve thrown those into the mix.

“We have said, ‘Let’s at least do the work to see whether that scenario would work for us.’ While many of those options don’t appear to be viable today, we’re not discarding anything because we don’t know what we’ll be facing in a week, much less a month or two from now.”

League, players in dispute

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, one of the community-owned franchises, reported in 2018 that 13 per cent of their revenue came from the CFL — with the television deal with TSN likely accounting for a large portion of that.

More than half of the team’s revenue came from game operations and concessions.

The CFL and CFL Players’ Association had been jointly discussing all possible contingency plans for the 2020 season. But a disagreement in talks last week resulted in the two sides no longer meeting.

The two sides must agree to make any modifications to the current CBA. But Ambrosie remains undeterred.

“We have an issue we didn’t agree on and that’s fine because sometimes that happens,” Ambrosie said. “But rather than poking at one another while we’ve got so many other issues to deal with, stepping away from it … and taking a deep breath to make sure when we go back to resume those discussions it’s with a clear head and the proper amount of reflection.”

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Chances of a partial government shutdown increased Thursday after the White House said President Trump does not want to move forward with a bill that would avoid a shutdown without border security and later, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said Trump had informed House Republican leadership he would not sign the bill passed by the Senate.

“At this moment, the President does not want to go further without border security, which includes steel slats or a wall,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “The President is continuing to weigh his options.”

After a meeting with House Republican leaders early Thursday afternoon, Paul Ryan said Trump had told them he would not sign the bill “because of his legitimate concerns for border security.” Ryan said they would go back to the House and continue to work with members there.

As House Republicans struggled to find the votes to pass the legislation ahead of a midnight Friday deadline, Trump started blaming GOP leaders for failing to deliver on the $5 billion he had demanded for the border wall. Ryan had promised a “big fight” after the midterm elections, but as Republicans lost House control, negotiations over the year-end spending bill have largely been between Trump and Democrats.

The temporary funding bill would keep government running to Feb. 8, but some House Republicans say it’s better to fight for the border wall now, before they relinquish their majority to Democrats in the new year. Facing enormous criticism from high-profile conservative media figures, they don’t want to leave town without one last fight over the border wall.

The White House had previously indicated that Trump was open to reviewing whatever Congress could send him. But the president did not immediately weigh in on the short-term spending plan, which would fund government past Friday’s deadline to Feb. 8. The Senate passed the bill Wednesday.

At issue in the current fight is money for nine of 15 Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, State and Justice, as well as national parks and forests.

Reporting and writing from The Associated Press was used in this report.

This report will be updated.

Photo by J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

Google has revealed its top trends of 2018, with data showing the most popular terms being searched for across the United States and even the rest of the world. The annual review compiles lists of terms for a variety of topics including movies, television shows, musicians and bands and food.

With tablets and smartphones allowing us to search anything we want almost instantaneously, Google Trends’ year-in-search has truly become a definitive representation of its time. For example, last year’s most popular U.S. search term was “iPhone 8” with “iPhone X” even coming in third. Unlike 2017 though, the top five trending searches of 2018 are void of any technology and are comprised predominately of celebrity deaths.

This year, “World Cup” was not only the top trending term in the U.S., but also globally. From “Mac Miller” to “Black Panther,” take a look back at what people in the U.S. have been googling the most over the past year. Did anything in your search history make the cut?

Check out America’s most popular Google searches for 2018 below:

---

1. World Cup

---

2. Hurricane Florence

---

3. Mac Miller

---

4. Kate Spade

---

5. Anthony Bourdain

---

6. Black Panther

---

7. Mega Millions Results

---

8. Stan Lee

---

9. Demi Lovato

---

10. Election Results

---

Google’s Annual Year-in-Search Video 2018

---

---

Google Trends also reveals their most popular searches for a slew of other categories and topics, ranging from professional sports teams and athletes all the way to fashion brands and beauty questions. They even round up the top trending search inquiries that start with”What is…?” and “Where is…?”

Check out some more of Google’s year in search for:

---

News

---

1. World Cup
2. Hurricane Florence
3. Mega Millions
4. Election Results
5. Hurricane Michael
6. Kavanaugh Confirmation
7. Florida Shooting
8. Royal Wedding
9. Olympic Medal Count
10. Government Shutdown

---

People

---

1. Demi Lovato
2. Meghan Markle
3. Brett Kavanaugh
4. Logan Paul
5. Khloé Kardashian

---

How to

---

1. How to vote
2. How to register to vote
3. How to play Mega Millions
4. How to buy Ripple
5. How to turn off automatic updates

---

Professional Sports Teams

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1. Cleveland Cavaliers
2. Boston Red Sox
3. Philadelphia Eagles
4. New York Yankees
5. Los Angeles Dodgers

---

Songs

---

1. “Bohemian Rhapsody”
2. “This Is America”
3. “Baby Shark”
4. “God’s Plan”
5. “Killshot”

---

What is…?

---

1. What is Bitcoin
2. What is racketeering
3. What is DACA
4. What is a government shutdown
5. What is Good Friday

---

See the full lists and many more top trending searches on Google’s Year In Search 2018.

---

Lead image by Universal Images Group/Shutterstock;’Black Panther’ inset by Marvel/Disney; World Cup inset by Getty Images

TAMPA, FL — He’s a walking advertisement for the importance of micro chipping your pet, although it’s highly unlikely the 2-year-old tabby cat walked all the way from Dearborn, Michigan, to Tampa.

After being found in Tampa, 1,100 miles away from home, Daisy Duck Bandit is now back in the arms of his owner in Dearborn.

How the cat came to be so far from home remains a mystery. Daisy Duck Bandit certainly isn’t talking.

Daisy went missing shortly before Halloween. Owner Andrew Sanborn checked all of the nearby shelters and posted “missing cat” notices but he could find hide nor hair of Daisy Duck.

Then, in mid-December, a stray tabby followed a Tampa woman walking her dog home. She brought the cat to Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners’ Tampa veterinary hospital. There, veterinary staff discovered the cat’s micro chip and promptly contacted the owner registered with the chip.

“We don’t know if he hitched a ride in a moving van or a snowbird took him down to Florida,” said Sanborn’s mother, Judy.

Nevertheless, getting the cat back to Michigan wasn’t going to be as easy as his mysterious trip to Tampa.

“Over the last three weeks, we tried to find friends and relatives who may have been in that area and able to bring Daisy home,” said Judy Sanborn. “We were unsuccessful. Our only option was to have him flown home in cargo.”

Judy Sanborn set up a GoFundMe account to raise the $500 needed to fly the cat home. The page attracted no shortage of cat lovers. In just four days, it raised $575.

While awaiting his return trip to Michigan, Daisy stayed with Blue Pearl staff member Stephanie Baker. Once Sanborn raised the necessary funds, Baker enlisted the help of Stephanie Nay, owner of Bamboo Pet Sitting in Tampa, to help get the cat home. Nay, in turn, recruited her friend, Dossie Marrone, wife of a Delta pilot, to hand deliver the cat to Sanborn on Thursday, Jan. 10.

A few hours later, Daisy and Andrew were reunited after a nearly three-month separation.

It’s hard to tell if the cat was excited to be home. But, within a half hour he was strutting around the house as if he’d never been gone, said Judy Sanborn.

Judy Sanborn promptly posted a photo on her Facebook page of Daisy back at his favorite window watching for squirrels and birds.

Videos and photos via Stephanie Nay and Judy Sanborn

Editor’s note: GoFundMe is a Patch promotional partner.

(For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

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