Waipukurau family seek missing foreign feline

Waipukurau woman Hilda Hurring has a special request.

Her son and daughter-in-law's black and white cat has gone missing from the family's Mt Herbert Rd address and due to lockdown she can't go searching for him.

Bobcho Marcho - also known as Boo - is a little out of the ordinary, as he has survived not only a rough start in life, but a trip across the world.

Boo is from Bulgaria.

Hilda's son Graeme met his wife Rositsa on a trip across Russia. Rositsa - Rosi - is from Bulgaria and the couple made their home there, until they moved to New Zealand two years ago.

A couple of years before they moved, their original cat became ill, dying in the care of a veterinary hospital.

Some weeks later the vet who cared for the cat rang Rosi.

"They asked if would we like to adopt one of the cats that they take care of at the vet. The truth is that we didn't want another pet, not so soon.

"But I couldn't stop myself going to see the cat she mentioned," says Rosi.

Boo was 8 months old.

Lost cat Boo.

Someone left him, badly injured, in a box in front of the vet hospital. He was just a couple of months old, and nearly dead.

It wasn't clear that he would survive. The vets operated on him but it was touch and go.

"Boo spent nearly six months living in a cage at the vets, so we just couldn't leave him there.

"After he came to our home it took him months to walk normally.

"The first time he went up the stairs, we thought he was going to die. His breathing was short and sharp and he made strange sounds. It got better - thankfully.

"Boo was timid and spent a lot of time hiding in the smallest hole that he could find and when we put him somewhere out in the open he didn't move for hours.

"It was sad to watch him.

"Three months later he was everywhere - happy and fast."

When the couple decided to move to New Zealand the paperwork wars started.

"It took us seven months to get Boo's documents.

"My husband went back two months before me but I needed to stay longer to wait for the documents to get ready and to send Boo from Bulgaria," Rosi says.

In Bulgaria he lived inside the house. He didn't go outside.

"When we came here it took us six months to teach him to go outside in the garden. We used everything from harnesses to GPS trackers and running after him and calling."

He learned to go through his cat door and outside in the garden.

He still spent a lot of time in the house and at night he slept inside on the bed.

"At the end on February we went back to Bulgaria to see my family and left Boo with Graeme's parents, where we live. Boo loves them as much as us I think because he would alternate nights on their bed.

"Coming back from Bulgaria we got as far as Australia. Covid-19 hit and all flights stopped and we are still in Australia.

"We have done everything we can from here. For him to come through everything he has only to get lost makes me - and all of us - very sad.

"Boo is a timid little man, especially around strangers, that is why we think he might be hiding somewhere.

"Please if you see him or know something please let us know."

If you see Boo, please contact Hilda on (06) 858 9877.