Archie, the 12-year-old cat who went missing from his home in Taradale, showed up in a Havelock North possum trap five years later. Photo / Supplied
Archie, the 12-year-old cat who went missing from his home in Taradale, showed up in a Havelock North possum trap five years later. Photo / Supplied
Over the Matariki long weekend, a 12-year-old cat named Archie who went missing five years ago was found stuck in a possum trap 17km from Taradale.
Birdwoods Gallery, Garden Cafe & Sweet Shop owner Louise Stobart found the cat in a trap on her Havelock North property.
It was acustomer who alerted Stobart that an elderly "wild cat" was caught in a possum trap under the Birdwoods' hedge in Middle Rd.
Stobart is not sure where the trap came from and believes the cat may have dragged the trap from where it was first set up, perhaps on farmland.
The business owner said it must have been caught for many days because the paw was rotten, and the cat was dehydrated, starving and had survived sub-zero temperatures.
He died in their arms with a full tummy, free from pain and a moment of being reunited with his family.
"We think the trap was put out for possums decimating the bird population on the farms surrounding us, and therefore understand the need for control and cannot blame the farmer," says Stobart.
Archie was freed from the trap and treated by a vet at Animal Care Vet in Havelock. Photo / Supplied
The trap may not have been secured tightly enough, and the cat moved it away from where the farmer would have been able to check it.
"I am sure they did not deliberately set the trap on our private land, and knowing our neighbours as we do, they are good farmers and not cruel people," Stobart said.
'This was just bad luck all round."
Stobart said that "the story's real sadness was the poor cat, who started life as a happy moggy and ended it so tragically five years after going missing, although finally reunited with its distraught owners".
