Missing Camas cat appears in Washougal months later

Even as days turned into weeks and then months, Camas residents Craig Whitten and Abbey Crnich never gave up hope their lost cat, Chong, would return home. “We had a feeling like he was just on a grand adventure,” Whitten said. “We always had this feeling he would come back — one way or another.” Chong, an 11-year-old ragdoll, went missing on Oct. 24. More than three months later, Whitten and Crnich saw a post on a missing pets Facebook page they’d created a decade earlier that looked exactly like Chong. “There was no doubt in my mind when I saw the picture because he’s got a smudge on his nose,” Whitten said. “I’ve seen him with that same exact look a thousand times. There was no doubt, like, ‘That’s our cat.’” Not only had Chong been missing for three months, he had traveled from his home in Camas to Beth Morris’ back porch in Washougal. Morris spotted Chong on her porch Jan. 30 but could not corral the wayward cat. A self-described animal lover, Morris believes Chong was attracted to the cat food she regularly puts out to feed raccoons. After seeing the cat on her porch, Morris opened her door and tried to convince Chong to come inside but the adventurous feline skittered away. Morris posted the cat’spicture in the Camas/Washougal Lost Pet Connection group on Facebook — the same group Whitten and Crnich launched 10 years prior when Chong’s litter mate went missing. The couple contacted Morris. “It was serendipity,” Morris said. “I get chills. It’s so cool to see it come full circle and benefit from what they started so many years ago.” Whitten and Crnich have had Chong since he was a 6-week-old kitten. They say that while he’s always been an outdoor cat, he would always return home after a few hours of prowling — until that evening in late October. “He’s a hunting breed, so he’ll go out at night sometimes and come back in the morning,” Whitten said. “But, he just didn’t come home. After a day, and especially two days, we were like, ‘We have to make flyers.’” From October to January, the couple saw no sign of Chong. Less than 10 minutes after Morris posted the photo on Facebook, she got a message from Whitten, who wrote that he believed the cat in the picture was his. Whitten and Crnich went to Morris’ house the next day and found Chong, but couldn’t catch him. “For a half hour, we’d slowly go up to him — about 5 feet away — but he would skid away,” Whitten said. “He was meowing. He was very unsure.” For the next week, Whitten, Crnich and Morris were consumed by their efforts to catch Chong. “I would talk to the Amazon truck (driver), the mailman. Everyone in my neighborhood knew about Chong,” Morris said. Whitten and Crnich bought two trail cameras, but could not locate Chong when he wasn’t prowling around Morris’ back porch. They then enlisted the assistance of I Paw’d It Forward, a Battle Ground nonprofit that offers lost-and-found pet services to Clark County residents. I Paw’d It Forward provided Morris with a trap. Morris filled the trap with blankets, food and catnip, and placed it outside her house. Over the next few days, the trap ensnared two feral cats and almost caught two others, but there was no sign of Chong. After several days of near-misses, Morris started to get discouraged. “I’d go out with my flashlight every night before I go to bed, (calling), ‘Chong, Chong,’ but nothing,” she said. “I was like, ‘I don’t even want to see,’ because I’d get up in the morning and the (trap) door would still be open.” On Feb. 7, Morris saw that there was a critter inside the trap but didn’t want to get too hopeful. “I’m like, ‘OK, I’m not getting excited. We probably got another stray or a raccoon,’” Morris said. But when she opened the trap, she saw Chong’s face peering back at her. “I knew it was him,” she said. “I was dancing, I was screaming, I was crying, I was so excited. My neighbors were probably ready to commit me to the psychiatric ward. I called Craig first, and my message was probably garbled … because I was so excited.” Whitten and Crnich returned to Morris’ house later that day to pick up their cat. “I was so excited,” Crnich said. “It was like so many emotions all at the same time, I couldn’t handle it.” “It was pure bliss, an emotion that I’d never quite felt before,” Whitten added. “I knew he was out there and would come back, but when I actually saw him, I was just like, ‘You’re here.’ I was so fulfilled and overwhelmed.” A visit to a veterinarian confirmed Chong lost some weight while adventuring and was dehydrated but was otherwise in good shape. “When we first brought him home, he hissed and did normal brother stuff to his litter mate, but he’s settled in now,” Whitten said. “We put a harness on him, with an Apple AirTag so he can be tracked from our phones.” Facebook group Chong’s brother, Chubs, disappeared in July 2014, which is when Crnich created the Camas/Washougal Lost Pet Connections Facebook group. While Chubs’ 12-day journey didn’t last nearly as long as his brother’s, it did serve as the impetus for residents to come together and help each other find their lost animals. Whitten and Crnich decided to keep the page going after finding Chubs. It grew over time, according to Whitten, and now has more than 5,600 members. Whitten estimates it has helped hundreds of east Clark County residents find missing pets over the past decade. “We’ve seen so many pets brought home through that page,” he said. “It’s incredibly busy at times.” The couple said their experience with Chong has helped them recognize the importance of the Facebook page even more. “It changed our lives,” Whitten said. “I feel it even more now that I’ve been through it. I’ll make a little more effort to share posts outside the page or take a second look at a cat. It’s bigger than just us.” Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669; doug.flanagan@columbian.com

Related Stories