Smudge leaves owner guessing after 76km road trip
A cat, 76 kilometres of open road, and one engine bay not fit for a feline.
This is the story of a cat who disappeared from his home in Al Ghadeer, on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai border, and resurfaced almost a week later at a villa in Al Shamkha.
It was not unusual for Smudge to go for days without being seen – after all, he was the neighbourhood feline walkabout, frequenting several houses for company or a meal. But he had been missing for almost a week and concerns began to grow.
“He’s not shown up for a few days before but he might go missing for three days and then he will show up. He has three or four other houses he visits,” said Jon Edwards, Smudge’s owner. “After three days we contacted all the other people who know him and they hadn’t seen him either. We started to get concerned.”
On day six, Mr Edwards took to Facebook and dubizzle, seeking information on Smudge’s whereabouts and offering a Dh3,000 reward for his safe return.
By pure coincidence, his phone rang 30 minutes later.
“It was 12.30 at night and this guy speaking poor English was trying to talk to me. I thought it was just a call offering to go look for him [for the reward]. I gave the phone to an Emirati and he turned to me and said ‘Yeah, he’s got your cat’.”
But the men who found Smudge had not seen any of the social media posts, nor did they know about any reward.
Mr Edwards immediately got in his car and drove to Al Shamkha, where Smudge had approached an Emirati family’s house in a sorry state.
Salah Ali was with his brother near the back door of the house when he noticed the small black cat approach them, and then run away.
The pair managed to coax the cat into their house, where they then set about finding his owner.
“My brother noticed the ring around his neck, so he tried to let Smudge feel comfortable so he could see the number,” Mr Ali said.
“Smudge was afraid and we tried to calm him down by offering milk and tuna for him.”
The brothers waited up with Smudge until Mr Edwards arrived at about 2.30am, to be reunited with his, by now, “quite stinky” cat.
Mr Edwards believes Smudge climbed into an engine bay, fell asleep and bailed out of the car somewhere near Al Shamkha.
Cats have been known to crawl into engine bays seeking heat as the days get cooler. But many are not as fortunate as Smudge and are often killed trying to jump from moving cars on busy roads.
Smudge might have learnt from experience, as it is perhaps not the first time the feline has opted for this mode of transport.
“He came to us at five weeks old after being separated from his mother, probably because he took another journey in an engine bay,” Mr Edwards said. “Hopefully he’s learnt his lesson now.”