Tinker the Cat Returns to Wyoming Home

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Was it a case of cat scratch fever? Or was Tinker, a 14-year-old brown tabby with one eye, just getting back in touch with her wildcat ancestors? Whatever the reason, after a sojourn in Oregon, Tinker is headed back to her Riverton, Wyo., home. In late October, a volunteer for the Salem Friends of Felines shelter found Tinker roaming the state fairgrounds.

"She kept coming up to us, purring," Samantha Demchak said. "And Jan (Petree, the shelter's executive director) said she knew the missing eye had been surgically removed, so we knew someone would be looking for her."

On Monday, Tinker was reunited with her owners, Carole and Dave Rowlette, who gladly made the two-day drive to pick up their cat.

The couple said Tinker wound up more than 1,100 miles from home after the Rowlettes attended a motor-home rally at the fairgrounds in September.

Dave Rowlette said the cat slipped out when the door was left open and was "gone in a flash." They looked for her late into the evening and resumed the search in the morning, before leaving their phone number with fairgrounds employees, who eventually passed it on to Petree.

Unfortunately, the phone number was juxtaposed. Petree wound up calling 13 Riverton residents until she found one who knew how to get in touch with the Rowlettes. Then she sent a postcard and waited.

"The Rowlettes were on another trip and didn't get the card for a few weeks. But we're here for the kitties," Petree said. "We don't give up."

Dave Rowlette said Tinker takes home one souvenir of Salem that will help them all remember the ordeal: a microchip ID courtesy of the SFOF.


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