IT would seem that Tokie, an odd-eyed and completely deaf feline that caught the Northglen News’s attention a few weeks ago, spent all his nine lives finding his way back home.
After nearly three months of searching, Durban North resident, Simone Coetzee, had just about given up hope when she received an unsuspecting phonecall.
Coetzee’s nightmare began when she was still living in Queensburgh. Like on most work days, she had climbed into her vehicle, started the engine and made her way to her offices in Westmead. However, when she arrived at her destination she received the most devastating news. A car guard had seen a white cat jump out from her vehicle’s engine compartment.
When she opened her car bonnet, the piles of white fur confirmed her worst fear -Tokie had hitched a ride and had now run away in fear. “I was absolutely heartbroken. I could not believe what was happening.
The guard had seen him run down Swansfield Road, but we could not find him anywhere. Over the next few months we put up flyers and drove around for ages, hoping to find him,” she said.
Meanwhile, Tracey Hartley of the Feral Cat rescue Trust, managed to trap Tokie at a panel-beating shop on Richmond Road and had found a new home for what she believed was one of the many dumped Durban cats. But Tokie was not fitting in well in his new environment. Being used to open spaces and the freedom to roam he become miserable and depressed in the small flat of his new owner.
And so a Facebook appeal was made to find him a home with safe and secure access to the outdoors. It was at this point that the adventurous feline not only caught the attention of the Northglen News, but also Anne, a former client of Coetzee’s, who knew of Tokie and his disappearance. She immediately alerted Coetzee.
“It was absolutely unbelievable. I did not know how to react. We had almost given up all hope of ever seeing him again. When we brought him back home it was like he had never left. He ate some food on his counter and strolled outside where he snoozed in the sun,” she said. Coetzee believes that Tokie’s return is an absolute miracle.
