From Jamestown to Mayville and back.
That was the journey a recently adopted cat made before finding a home.
"It started with me feeding him," said Mary Zerbo, new owner of Star the cat. "The two women who lived next door were also feeding him, but they were planning on moving. The women were moving out of state and didn't think they could take him, so they found someone in Mayville who was interested in keeping him as an indoor cat. Well, we called up to Mayville two weeks or so after he was moved out there, and the people we had given him to hadn't seen him at all. They just let him go, and they never looked for him once he became lost."
Article Photos
Mary Zerbo holds Star, who now has a permanent home after wandering around Chautauqua County for nearly four months.
P-J photo by Remington?Whitcomb
According to Zerbo, it is likely that Star was very confused with his new location in Mayville and began wandering around the village, as he couldn't have known he wasn't in Jamestown anymore.
Eventually, Star found his way to Beaujean Road in Mayville, which has a heavily forested area adjacent to it.
"People said they had seen a cat which looked like Star around Beaujean road, but it was so heavily wooded that there was almost no point in going there to look for him," said Zerbo. "Even if we did see him, there were so many places for him to hide that we'd never be able to get our hands on him."
However, Zerbo didn't want to give up so easily. With the help of others, Zerbo put Star's picture on Facebook, Chautauqua Pets and both The Post-Journal and the Dunkirk Observer.
"I received many phone calls asking for updates on Star," said Zerbo. "Once he was on Facebook, a woman from Mayville called me and said she saw a cat that looked like Star around her house, but unfortunately I never heard back from her. About a week later, I received another call from someone in Mayville who heard about Star on the radio. She was able to capture him and she even brought Star all the way from Mayville to Jamestown, since I have no way of making it to Mayville."
Though Zerbo was ecstatic to know that Star was well and in good hands, neither her nor Janet Barry, the woman who found Star in Mayville, could understand how he found his way from Beaujean Road to West Chautauqua Street, where Barry lived.
"She told me that the good Lord must have sent him," said Zerbo. "Had she not rescued him, he never would have made it."
When Star was finally in the hands of Zerbo again, he only weighed six pounds and he had burrs from his neck to his feet and his mouth was severely inflamed.
However, Star is in good health again, even though he is a bit skittish around people now.
Zerbo believes that over time, that skittishness will pass.
"I'd really like to thank everyone who helped Star to find his way back home," said Zerbo. "My friends Laura, Fran G., Ken, Barry, and of course Janet Barry. Without these people, Star might still be lost."