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.
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