Castaway cat comes back

An Auckland yachting family is reunited with their cat, after it fell overboard and was missing for 10 days.

It is believed that Luchs, a tabby Bengal, overcame harbour currents in the Hauraki Gulf near Kawau Island, swimming to safety.

Owner Julie Rowe said her family was on holiday on a catamaran over Easter weekend when they noticed something was wrong.

‘‘Normally Luchs is very active at night, jumping around the boat, but that evening everything went quiet. In the morning we found that she was gone.’’

The family believed the cat had drowned and spent all day looking for Luchs’ body, which they thought might have washed up on shore. They found nothing.

Then they were forced to make the ‘‘heartbreaking’’ decision to leave the island because of bad weather.

Rowe posted on the Kawau Island community page, asking residents to keep an eye out for the cat, despite knowing ‘‘the odds were slim’’.

‘‘I was sure she was gone, and I knew that my perseverance was a bit irrational, but I felt guilty because she’s only a year old and the kids missed her.’’

Rowe learned from residents that cats were a contentious topic on Kawau. She heard some locals shot cats, because of their impact on wildlife. Fearing Luchs could be in even more danger, Rowe offered a $1500 bounty to anyone who helped return the cat alive. She also pledged a further $1500 donation to

DOC.

‘‘My partner is a professor of environmental science, so we are passionate about predator control.’’

After 10 days, residents responded to Rowe’s post, saying they had spotted a tabby cat near Schoolhouse Bay, about 3km from where the family had moored.

Rowe took the day off work and hiked around the island for hours.

‘‘After spending all day looking, I was ready to give up and call the water taxi, but I decided to search for 15 more minutes.’’

That’s when Rowe heard a meow, followed by exclamations from people nearby. ‘‘She ran towards me. It was an unreal experience. I called up my partner, family and my co-workers to tell them I’d found her, I was so happy.’’

Rowe said the cat had lost some weight and hungrily devoured a plate of food she had brought for it.

Since returning home to Auckland, Luchs has been ‘‘clingy’’, preferring to sleep inside at night on beds instead of roaming like usual.

‘‘We’re just so grateful to have her home. And I’ve contacted DOC to make sure I can donate the bounty to conservation efforts on the island.’’