Benny and Susanne Anguiano were shocked when they received a phone call recently with unexpected news: Their missing cat had been found safe.
The cat, Rayne Beau, pronounced “rainbow,” had been missing for two months after disappearing in Yellowstone National Park.
He was rescued in Roseville, California, nearly 200 miles from the Anguianos’ home in Salinas. Roseville is about an 800-mile trek from Yellowstone.
The local SPCA located the Anguianos thanks to a microchip implanted in Rayne Beau.
In an interview with CBS News Sacramento, Alex Bitts, who found the cat, said Rayne Beau appeared close to death when she discovered him.
She heard the cat yowling in a drainage ditch, fed him, and later returned with a cage to bring him to the SPCA.
Benny became emotional while discussing Rayne Beau’s survival, attributing it to divine intervention.
After running off on their camping trip, the couple had been warned by Yellowstone park rangers that their pet may have fallen prey to a grizzly bear or coyote, both common in the area, per The New York Times.
After five days of unsuccessful searching, the Anguianos returned home, fearing they would never see their cat again.
“Leaving him was unthinkable,” Susanne Anguiano told The New York Times. “I felt like I was abandoning him.”
Rayne Beau’s sister, Starr, meowed continuously during the long drive home. The Anguianos had fostered and then adopted the two cats when they were 11 months old.
Rayne Beau is particularly clever, according to the couple. He had wandered off from home before but always returned.
But Yellowstone presented a far greater challenge than their neighborhood.
“He didn’t realize that it wasn’t just like his backyard,” Anguiano said. “This is like the biggest backyard in the United States.”