More owners speak up for their missing feline companions

Feline friends are continuing to go missing, or worse, ending up killed.

After the Roodepoort Northsider published an initial article conveying the sorrows and concerns of local cat owners after their beloved pets disappeared or were poisoned, additional information was received from other cat owners who have come forward to share their stories in hopes of finding answers.

The first account comes from Soyenne de Beer in Wilgeheuwel, who adopted two four-month-old kittens, Finn and Wednesday, in January and sadly lost Finn, five months later.

She explained that the two cats were quite bonded, although Finn was a bit more adventurous and explored the secure gated community every once in a while.

“The neighbours knew Finn and I would often hear tales of his visits,” said Soyenne. A few months ago, around March, according to Soyenne she was busy preparing her daughter’s lunchbox for school and while filling her water bottle, noticed Finn enter through a kitchen window.

“I was running the water, filling the bottle when I noticed a strong smell in the room. My first instinct was to check the water bottle, but it wasn’t the source of the smell,” elaborated Soyenne, she added that she looked at Finn and noticed he look disheveled, and realised the smell came from him.

“It was petrol! I could smell it on him and it looked like someone doused him in it!” exclaimed Soyenne.

She took Finn to the vet for a check-up and a bath and thought about how Finn could’ve gotten petrol all over him.

“It just didn’t make sense that he’d have rolled in it, it was all over him like he was soaked,” added Soyenne. After pondering the subject Soyenne and her family put the idea to rest as Finn was doing well and they thought he would stay away from wherever he got petrol on him.

Fast forward to June 15, when Finn was nowhere to be seen. “At first I was worried, but the day was still young and I knew that he would come back for some wet cat food in the afternoon as my cats know their routine and always come running for their food,” she explained.

“When he didn’t show up later that day I was very distressed. Where is my Finn?”

Soyenne brought in Diane Logie and K9 Blob from Healthy Hound Missing Pet Search and Rescue to help locate her missing feline.

“They found his scent at the same place on Friday [June 16] and Saturday [June 17]. The scent did not take the search dog out of our estate,” explained Soyenne.

Diane said their K9 tracked to a house that coincidentally was one of the suspected houses.

“We found scent in the yard but could not search the house. We left feeling very disheartened as we knew he was close. The next day we returned and tracked again. Once again coming to the same home. Our K9 did something very unusual and started barking loudly! Neighbours came out to see what was up but we could not get anyone’s attention at the house so we decided we would return the next day,” stated Diane.

Unfortunately, that was when things took a turn for the worst. Saturday afternoon a mother and daughter called Soyenne explaining that they think they found Finn’s body dumped in a shopping bag 1.2km away from their home.

“The vet confirmed he died on June 17,” she added.

“It appears he was killed. Unfortunately the only evidence at the moment linking the one house to this boy is the K9’s track,” said Diane.

“We believe that Finn was being held by someone and when the sniffer dog and team showed up again, the person killed our cat, by hand, and dumped him,” exclaimed Soyenne, as she asked the vet to take x-rays and pinpoint what caused Finn’s death.

“They gave their opinion that Finn’s injuries do not coincide with a hit and run, rather a bat or targeted weapon to the chest, as he had a massive hemorrhage in his chest and no broken bones.”

Soyenne and her family are appealing to the Wilgeheuwel community to come forward with any information available to help track down who did this to their beloved pet.

Another heartbroken pet owner, Bernice Stoltz explained that she has two missing cats who went missing in Wilro Park without a trace.

“I have searched everywhere, and contacted the SPCA, but to no avail. My cats were both sterilised and always used to come home. The one went missing when we moved here about a year and a half ago and the other one about six months ago. I drove through every road in and around Wilro Park and could not find them not even their bodies, if they were run over,” explained Bernice, adding that she hopes someone can help or try to figure out what’s going on.

“Why there are so many cats going missing?”

Twané Kirsten came forward and told the harrowing story of how her loving tribe of six cats turned into a trio.
“We moved into our house in Discovery at the end of February. Our cats all adjusted very quickly and we could slowly let them out,” told Twané, “unfortunately about a month after moving in someone drove over our black and white kitty, Avo, and we found him in the road right in front of our house. Our hearts broke but we had closure as we knew what had happened and we were able to bury him.”

At the start of May, she noticed her grey tortoiseshell cat, Mavis, didn’t come in that night.

“We hoped that maybe she was just out exploring the new neighbourhood but she never came back,” explained Twané.

“Two weeks later we couldn’t find our ginger cat, Aslan. He was the absolute sweetest boy and was always at home around us playing with the kids and dogs. He never really went out so we immediately noticed he was gone.”

She immediately contacted the woman that they adopted Aslan from as his microchip had their details on it.

“We hoped that maybe someone found him and contacted them,” added Twané, unfortunately, they were not so lucky.

“I suspect that he went out looking for Mavis and maybe followed her scent and then got himself into some kind of trouble. The two of them were always together,” pondered Twané, as she couldn’t drop the feeling that something was going on.

“We’ve had them for years and now suddenly they both go missing?”