To the editor:

After 49 days, we found our cat Ackite!

I really wanted to thank Suffolk News Herald for helping me so much in the beginning, especially the lady who helped me with the ad in the paper who had Oreo as a family pet. Putting Ackite’s missing ad in the paper early on after he was taken helped so much. We had so many calls from people thinking they had seen him, and they kept looking for him even after the ad stopped running.

In the end, I was the one who found him. I was driving down the road, when I saw a black-and-white cat crouching down to the ground near a field. I stopped in the middle of the road, put on my blinkers and got out. I called out, “Ackite”? He meowed! I then went a little crazy and jumped over the ditch up onto the field, yelling his name, but he ran.

Later that afternoon, when my husband and I got off work, we went back to the place I had seen him, but we couldn’t find him. So we set a trap with food in it and went home.
The next morning when we returned to check the trap, my husband said, “There is a black and white cat in it, and it looks like Ackite.” When he brought out the trap and turned it around, I knew right away it was Ackite. He had cleaned the can of food we
left and was crying so loud.

He was miles from his home. He was skin and bones, had lots of ticks. We got him home, and all he did was eat for about a week. We thought he was doing okay until we realized he really was sick. So he had a vet visit today, and we learned he has an upper respiratory infection and a glandular problem, but we hope this is going to be fixed now. He could potentially also have parasites of some sort, so he will get checked for that around Thanksgiving, since this can take time to build in a little body like his.

But he is home, he is getting well, and we are over the top with relief we found him. This is a miracle!
Although it was ultimately me who found him after so many days of searching (49 days seemed like forever), the compassion you genuinely felt and gave me meant so very much. Your kindness towards me gave me hope to keep looking and never give up.

Merri Branchaud

Suffolk