On The Up: Owner reunited with cat one year after going missing

Bay of Plenty cat owner Lynda McCalman has been reunited with her cat Franco one year after he went missing. Photo / Lynda McCalman

A Bay of Plenty woman is “ecstatic” after being reunited with her pet cat a year after he went missing.

Franco the cat was returned to Lynda McCalman last Saturday thanks to social media, a neighbour in the area, and an SPCA trap.

McCalman told the Bay of Plenty Times Franco, her pet of six years, went missing last June.

He disappeared when the Pāpāmoa local took him to her partner’s home in Hamurana, near Rotorua, to meet his cat as McCalman planned to move there.

“He was only there for two days and he scarpered.”

McCalman spent weeks looking for Franco but to no avail.

As the time passed, she couldn’t help but think something bad had happened.

McCalman said her partner sold his property in December and the couple moved to her house in Pāpāmoa.

On the one-year anniversary of Franco’s disappearance, McCalman posted on a Hamurana Facebook page “on the off-chance” someone had seen him.

“You often hear that cats don’t wander far.”

Lynda McCalman said she had owned Franco for six years before he went missing in June 2024. Photo / Lynda McCalman

McCalman was contacted by Shelley Costello, who lived about 1.5km away from her partner’s old property.

Costello had seen McCalman’s Facebook post with the photo of Franco and believed he was the cat she and her husband Tony had spotted every now and then for the past few months.

McCalman visited Costello to see if it was Franco.

“I went over there about three times and each time he didn’t come out at all.”

Costello told the Bay of Plenty Times she had seen Franco at the neighbour’s property eating food for their chickens.

“When I called, he looked up at me,” she said.

She contacted McCalman again. McCalman went but Franco had gone by the time she arrived.

McCalman hired a trap from the SPCA.

“As I was going down to lay it, I saw Franco and I called. And he looked up at me, he recognised his name and all the rest of it,” she said.

McCalman dropped the trap and walked slowly towards him but he ran off.

Undeterred, she laid the trap last Friday, using cat food.

Costello checked the trap the next morning and found a different cat had been trapped. She released the cat and reset the trap.

Later that day, Costello made a second check and saw Franco had been caught.

She called McCalman and said: “We’ve got him.”

 McCalman arrived with her father to collect Franco.

“I tell you; it made me cry,” Costello said.

Lynda McCalman said Franco was a wild cat before she domesticated him. Photo / Lynda McCalman

McCalman was “ecstatic” about the reunion.

“He’s eating and he’s littering ... and just purring and smoochy and he just won’t stop,” she said.

McCalman said Franco had clearly been in survival mode when he was trapped.

He had been a wild cat before she domesticated him.

“I think he must have reverted to his original ways.”

Franco was in “really good nick” when he was found.

“If anything, he’s probably a bit fat,” McCalman said with a laugh.

She said she would love to know if anyone else had been looking out for him.

Costello said it was “absolutely amazing” to help McCalman reunite with Franco, as she and her husband were animal lovers.

“For the rest of the day, I just felt fantastic.

“After seeing this outcome, anyone else that is missing a cat, they should not give up in finding that cat.

“It’s amazing how those cats can live.”

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.