Rafiki the missing cat found; owners delighted

A BENGAL cat who went walkabout for three weeks has been found, much to his owners’ delight.

Mindarie residents Helen and Dave Mansell returned from their honeymoon on January 13 to find their cat, Rafiki, had gone missing a week earlier.

Reunited on January 29 after he was found in a vacant Mindarie house, Mrs Mansell said she was “one happy bengal owner”.

In their search, they put up more than 100 posters and distributed flyers to 3500 homes in Mindarie, Quinns Rocks and Ridgewood and communitynews.com.au ran a story.

Mrs Mansell said she received a phone call on Sunday about a cat in the house that had been vacant and she were to check if it was him.

“He had been camping out in an empty house and on Saturday new people moved in and disturbed his peace,” she said.

“They were not sure if he lived locally as he still had his collar and tags.

“The daughter cleared the post box late Sunday afternoon and came across a flyer we had posted saying he was missing.

“I then received a phone call telling me about the cat and I went to look not expecting it to be him.

“It took a while to get him to come to me – he had not seen me for nearly two months.

“Once home, he had a nice shower – bengals don’t mind water; he had a nice feed and lots of hugs.”

Mrs Mansell said the vet checked him on Monday and he was fine, although he had lost more than 2kg weight.

She thanked everyone who had helped in the search, including colleagues at Community Vision, and people who followed the Facebook page they set up.

“The community spirit to find him has been overwhelming,” she said.

“People have left out water and food for him to find.”