Nancy Willis
CHERRY HILL – The “Cat Came Back” stories are always a delight and this one about the elegant white cat Percy and 12-year-old Jordan Chowen is pure enchantment.
The Chowens, Jim, Linda and their four children, live on a farm several kilometres southeast of Mount Stewart.
It’s an animal lover’s paradise tucked away behind a stand of trees with scads of barn and house cats (all neutered and inoculated), 18 riding horses, chickens, a loving old dog and more.
Among all these pets, a big graceful, white cat called Percy was young Jordan’s closest buddy. He was an inside cat, raised by the boy from a kitten, and he slept curled up with him every night. One day, 14 months earlier, Percy disappeared.
“We thought he was gone for sure. And the only thing we can figure out now, is that he must have crawled into the open door of a car that was waiting in our yard. A friend of ours from Summerside had stopped to pick up a load of laundry from the house and came back out with it in her arms,” said Linda.
The car drove away and that was the last time Percy was seen. “It was a cold and windy day and I had been up in a bedroom doing some painting when my friend came. I remember looking out the window and seeing him sitting down by the barn door not long before that.”
The Chowens looked everywhere for the cat.
They walked the ditches, drove up and down the roads and Jordan toured every nook and cranny on his bicycle. Days, weeks and months went by, but no Percy.
“This was a noticeable white cat, out on his own throughout the winter months in the midst of eagles, foxes and coyotes, and the rest of us thought he was gone for good,” said Linda.
But not Jordan.
“I never gave up,” he said. “When a litter of kittens was born I wouldn’t name any of them Percy because I knew the real Percy would come back.”
Then one afternoon, just over a week ago, Linda saw what she thought was one of the farm’s many barn cats howling at the front door.
“I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it so I went over to the door, and the instant I opened it he flew into the house and up the stairs to the door of Jordan’s room where he started roaring.”
Since there are several white cats on the farm, she had no thoughts of it being Percy. She picked him up and put him back out the front door, and within seconds he was around at the back door roaring as hard as ever.
“I opened the door again and he soared into the air and landed in my arms yowling, and crying and purring like mad all at the same time, and nipping my arms and hands. Jordan came in, and as soon as he said, ‘Percy,’ the cat leapt into his arms, began biting and howling and crying all over again.
“Pretty soon we were all just about crying and it was a totally joyful reunion,” she said.
Late that night, when Linda went into her son’s room, there was the bedraggled Percy curled up with Jordan in bed, exactly as before.
He was thin, dirty, and sported infections in both eyes and ears. But after a couple of weeks of medication and attention, this much-loved cat is well on his way back to normal….and all is well in the Chowen household.
