Tequila’s sobering journey home
FOURWAYS – WHEN radio and sport presenter Sasha Marteningo recently received a text message from an acquaintance asking him if he had found his cat which went missing seven months ago, his heart sank, as his family had almost given up all hope of finding their lost pet.
When Marteningo relocated to a new home in December last year, Tequila the Maine Coon cat which Marteningo said had always been a wanderer, took it upon himself to explore his new surroundings. But sadly, Tequila never made his way back home.
“We handed out pamphlets and put posters up at all the vets in the area, asking everyone to look out for our cat,” said Marteningo at his Fourways residence.
“We searched everywhere for him. The problem is that at the time he wasn’t micro-chipped. After some time had passed, we began giving up any hope of finding him again. My daughter was distraught.”
Fast forward to 11 June and the situation took a pleasant up-turn. By “pure fluke” as Marteningo put it, his friend Shirley Glover sent him a message asking about Tequila, adding that she saw a Facebook post stating that a very similar-looking cat was currently being kept at Fourways Vet Hospital.
“When I saw the picture, I knew it was him,” Marteningo added.
The cat was brought in after he was found wandering around with a group of feral cats all the way in Meyersdal, south of Joburg, by Honeydew resident Shelley Afargan.
Afargan was feeding the feral cats at her workplace in Meyersdal when she noticed that one of them (Tequila) was too domesticated and assumed it was someone’s missing cat. Through a stroke of luck, no vets were open in Meyersdal at the time, so she decided to take it to Fourways Vet Hospital which has 24-hour emergency facilities.
“This was more than luck,” said Afargan. “I think it was divine intervention.”
Marteningo and his daughter rushed to the vet’s practice to verify if it was really their beloved cat.
“I went to his holding area and then the moment I touched him, he flopped over so I could tickle his tummy, just like he always did,” continued Marteningo.
“My eyes welled up. He’s definitely our cat.”
Tequila has now been chipped and has already settled back in with the Marteningo family.
Practice manager at Fourways Vet Hospital, Amanda Pybus, said it was purely through the power of social media that Tequila was miraculously found safe and unharmed.
“This was a very lucky case which highlights the importance of making sure your pets are identifiable and micro-chipped,” said Pybus.
“Sadly, things hardly ever turn out this way in these situations. Just in May this year, more than 60 pets were reported missing at our practice and many of them are never found.
“We only played a small part in finding him [Tequila], but we are so happy that he’s finally back with his rightful owners,” Pybus concluded.
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