I know a lot of you guys asked for this story, so here it goes. For context, my cat, Sasha, means everything to me and my wife. I'm allergic to cats, and after a while of dating, I told my wife that it was me or the cat. I was tired of sneezing non-stop and having bloodshot eyes. My wife chose the cat. I chose to continue to suffer. After a while, things got better and I eventually became somewhat immune.
Anyway, I fell in love with Sasha and now I think she likes me more than my wife lol. We don't plan on having any kids since we are both very career driven. Sasha means everything to us, and we love her more than anything.
In February, I was out in Las Vegas covering the Pylon tournament and hit the $5,000 jackpot. An hour later, my wife called me and told me that she couldn't find Sasha. Our cat has an adventurous streak and would go outside in Texas under supervision. Even when we would lose sight of her, she would always come home. Still, we had just moved to Chicago, and I got super worried. Sasha had escaped out of her walking harness and chased after another cat.
I switched my flight to the first one out of Vegas. We looked all day and night and couldn't find her. It was unlike Sasha to not come back, so we talked to all the neighbors and started making flyers. One told us about the community Facebook pages, so we joined them. My wife would post about Sasha every four days or so from that time on.
Chicago is so clustered, and there are so many hiding places for cats. We only live five miles from downtown, so I knew finding her was going to be a nightmare. We didn't sleep for 96 hours straight after Sasha got lost. Over the next 40 or so days, we slept in increments. The pandemic hit, so I didn't have to travel.
We would look all day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. When we took breaks, I would type stories and post on The Fort. I was also constantly on my phone checking the site and monitoring social. We would go back out around 10 p.m. and would look until 3 a.m even when the temperatures dipped below 20. We looked in rain and snow. We didn't care how dangerous Chicago was at night. We just wanted to find Sasha. And yes, we ran into some sketchy people and happenings.
Throughout those two months, I must have hopped around 100 fences and set off a dozen alarms. I searched in several abandoned houses. We bought wildlife cameras off Amazon and set them up in the allies, so we would know what cats were in the area. We also bought humane traps and set them up. We continued to look everyday and followed the schedule above. We printed about 2,000 flyers and set them up everywhere in a 3-mile radius. My wife made huge maps that we updated, and she consistently posted on social media.
We printed out more flyers with a $500 reward and went door to door telling our story. We put them in mailboxes if people weren't home, and we posted them all around parks. We consulted with local cat organizations and did everything humanly possible to find her with no luck. We had several sightings that didn't end up being her, and we drove all around Chicago to investigate. People in the neighborhood helped look, and even a Fort member came out and joined the search.
We got so desperate that we hired a sniffer dog that was featured on National Geographic. We paid $1,500 for that, and the stupid dog found nothing. The dog handler told us Sasha was hiding nearby as did the local cat experts. But as we learned more about Chicago's massive feral cat population, we started expanding our search further and further out.
I bought an infrared camera like on Ghost Hunters, so I could spot cats at night. It was worthless and didn't help and ended up being a waste of money. We eliminated areas on my wife's maps thanks to the wildlife cameras and continued to post flyers and on social media.
April 11 was Sasha's birthday. We looked all day and night and didn't sleep. We cried most of the day. The following day, after another false sighting, I got a text with a picture of a cat. I immediately knew it was Sasha. She was in a park four miles away. A girl in our neighborhood had received one of the mailbox flyers and was in that area visiting family for Easter. She kept an eye on Sasha as we frantically drove over there. Sasha came running to us, and we immediately took her to the emergency clinic. She must have only been two pounds.
In total, I spent all $5,000 from that jackpot and more finding Sasha, but it was worth it. She is home and fully healthy. Sasha was celebrated on the CBS affiliate here in Chicago, received thousands of likes on social and even received welcome home gifts from our neighbors. Chicago was so supportive us, and even though it was horrible experience, it really helped us grow as people and find a sense of community in our new home.
Anyway, I fell in love with Sasha and now I think she likes me more than my wife lol. We don't plan on having any kids since we are both very career driven. Sasha means everything to us, and we love her more than anything.
In February, I was out in Las Vegas covering the Pylon tournament and hit the $5,000 jackpot. An hour later, my wife called me and told me that she couldn't find Sasha. Our cat has an adventurous streak and would go outside in Texas under supervision. Even when we would lose sight of her, she would always come home. Still, we had just moved to Chicago, and I got super worried. Sasha had escaped out of her walking harness and chased after another cat.
I switched my flight to the first one out of Vegas. We looked all day and night and couldn't find her. It was unlike Sasha to not come back, so we talked to all the neighbors and started making flyers. One told us about the community Facebook pages, so we joined them. My wife would post about Sasha every four days or so from that time on.
Chicago is so clustered, and there are so many hiding places for cats. We only live five miles from downtown, so I knew finding her was going to be a nightmare. We didn't sleep for 96 hours straight after Sasha got lost. Over the next 40 or so days, we slept in increments. The pandemic hit, so I didn't have to travel.
We would look all day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. When we took breaks, I would type stories and post on The Fort. I was also constantly on my phone checking the site and monitoring social. We would go back out around 10 p.m. and would look until 3 a.m even when the temperatures dipped below 20. We looked in rain and snow. We didn't care how dangerous Chicago was at night. We just wanted to find Sasha. And yes, we ran into some sketchy people and happenings.
Throughout those two months, I must have hopped around 100 fences and set off a dozen alarms. I searched in several abandoned houses. We bought wildlife cameras off Amazon and set them up in the allies, so we would know what cats were in the area. We also bought humane traps and set them up. We continued to look everyday and followed the schedule above. We printed about 2,000 flyers and set them up everywhere in a 3-mile radius. My wife made huge maps that we updated, and she consistently posted on social media.
We printed out more flyers with a $500 reward and went door to door telling our story. We put them in mailboxes if people weren't home, and we posted them all around parks. We consulted with local cat organizations and did everything humanly possible to find her with no luck. We had several sightings that didn't end up being her, and we drove all around Chicago to investigate. People in the neighborhood helped look, and even a Fort member came out and joined the search.
We got so desperate that we hired a sniffer dog that was featured on National Geographic. We paid $1,500 for that, and the stupid dog found nothing. The dog handler told us Sasha was hiding nearby as did the local cat experts. But as we learned more about Chicago's massive feral cat population, we started expanding our search further and further out.
I bought an infrared camera like on Ghost Hunters, so I could spot cats at night. It was worthless and didn't help and ended up being a waste of money. We eliminated areas on my wife's maps thanks to the wildlife cameras and continued to post flyers and on social media.
April 11 was Sasha's birthday. We looked all day and night and didn't sleep. We cried most of the day. The following day, after another false sighting, I got a text with a picture of a cat. I immediately knew it was Sasha. She was in a park four miles away. A girl in our neighborhood had received one of the mailbox flyers and was in that area visiting family for Easter. She kept an eye on Sasha as we frantically drove over there. Sasha came running to us, and we immediately took her to the emergency clinic. She must have only been two pounds.
In total, I spent all $5,000 from that jackpot and more finding Sasha, but it was worth it. She is home and fully healthy. Sasha was celebrated on the CBS affiliate here in Chicago, received thousands of likes on social and even received welcome home gifts from our neighbors. Chicago was so supportive us, and even though it was horrible experience, it really helped us grow as people and find a sense of community in our new home.
