Forensic Expert Assists the Mystery of the Missing Cat
Monday, August 4, 2008
Comments sent to the website for forensic anthropologist and international best-selling author Kathy Reichs explain how her novel Bare Bones helped a couple in Wilmington, Delaware, USA solve a mystery in their own home.Their story is reprinted below in their words. We are all delighted to know that the cat is back with his family after being lost for more than a year.
"We have an interesting story about how a Kathy Reichs novel solved the mystery of a missing cat.
Kathy Reichs writes mystery novels upon which the TV program Bones is based. She also unknowingly solved a mystery at our house. It was the result of reading one of her latest books "Bare Bones".
A few weeks ago, we heard and saw a nice looking gray cat hanging around and under the deck at the rear of our house. The cat had a long silky coat with short fur on his head. It looked somewhat like a Maine Coon without the ear tufts. We were reluctant to bring it in the house because we did not know if it had had shots. Also, we did not want to encourage it if it belonged to someone in the neighborhood. It was obvious that he had been someone's house pet because when we opened the back door to let our dog out, the cat came right over and rubbed against our legs.
After a few days, we began to put food and water out for the cat. He came to Loretta, my wife, and allowed her to comb tangles out his coat. Loretta also removed several tics from his long silky coat. When our Boston Terrier went out the door, the cat didn’t react negatively and usually tried to rub up against the dog. The dog wasn't so sure he liked that. After a week or so, we placed ads in the local papers, called all the local vets, contacted the SPCA and others to see if anyone reported a missing cat. We got no response but did find out that one of our neighbors was also feeding the cat and had put a flea collar on him. Fortunately it was spring and the weather was relatively mild. When it rained, the cat stayed under our deck where it was dry and out of the wind.
After a few more weeks we became attached to the cat and decided that if no one claimed him we were going to take him to the vet for a check up and "adopt" him for our own.
A few days before the deadline we had set for action Loretta was reading "Bare Bones", the Kathy Reichs novel. In that story the heroine solves a homicide after finding the remains of a cat with the remains of a murder victim. She also noticed a small pellet which she recognized as a microchip in an x-ray of the cat. Microchips are often put under the skin of a cat or dog to identify it if it is lost. The heroine used the information from the microchip to identify the cat and the cat's owner, who turned out to be the homicide victim.
A few days after reading this, it suddenly occurred to Loretta that maybe "our" cat might have a microchip. She went to the cat and felt between the cat's shoulder blades. Sure enough, it felt something like a large grain of rice which she thought might be a microchip. As the heroine in the book did, we called the local vet and found that he had a microchip scanner. We excitedly gathered up the cat and took him to the vet.
A simple scan of the cat with the chip reader disclosed that it was a microchip and the scanner read out an ID number. The vet's assistant called the Home Finder service which keeps records of such ID numbers. In minutes, we had a name and a phone number of the cat's owner. The assistant called the number and the man who answered acknowledged that they had indeed lost a cat but said it had disappeared over a year ago.
He was excited and a short time after getting directions to the vet's office, several of the family arrived at the office. When they entered the lobby and started talking, the cat's ears perked up and he seemed to recognize their voices. When they came in the room and saw him, they where overwhelmed to see their beloved cat.
Even though he had been missing for more than a year he was healthy and in good condition. The scene was like a big Welcome Home party. The cat's owners were delighted to have their cat back. We were sad to see him go but we were happy for his owners.
With the mystery of the cat's owner solved, the next mystery was why the cat was found more that 10 miles from its original home. We had no clue as to how he had gotten from his neighborhood to the other side of town and across numerous busy roads. We also wondered who had kept him through the previous winter. But unless that cat learns to talk, even reading more Kathy Reichs' novels will not solve those mysteries. "
KathyReichs.com
Home
