Lost cat found via cable channel

Rachel and Amy Cunningham of Cape Girardeau say that they've learned that with prayer, ingenuity and luck, miracles can happen.

Thank Spottie the cat for that.

Rachel, 10, and Amy, 9, left with their family earlier this month to travel to a family reunion in Canada. They were going to be gone for some time, and they were't going to be able to take their cat Spottie. The girls were a little worried about leaving Spottie behind, but their dad, Eric, made arrangements with a friend to check on Spottie regularly to make sure he had plenty of food and water.

All went well for a while. The Cunninghams were enjoying their vacation, and Spottie was doing fine. Then one day, the friend left in charge of Spottie couldn't find Spottie. Spottie had last been seen about July 1.

When they arrived home and there was no Spottie, the girls were heartbroken, and parents Eric and Janet felt guilty. Maybe they should have left Spottie at a kennel, they thought. Amy cried, Rachel cried, and Eric and Janet felt like crying.

But they all said prayers for Spottie and his safe return.

To help things along, the girls rode their bikes around the neighborhood and posted lost cat posters with Spottie's picture. They even offered a $50 reward. They talked to all their friends and neighbors, but no one had seen Spottie.

"I went to bed that night, said a prayer that Spottie would come home. But I was really afraid he was gone for good," admitted Eric.

But then he wondered if maybe he could post the girls' missing cat poster on the cable access Channel 5.

He talked to Kim McCoy at Channel 5.

"We'd never run missing pet announcements before, " said McCoy, "but I didn't see any reason that we couldn't."

So Spottie's picture was posted on Channel 5 among the many announcements about coming events, city meetings and other events. It was a long shot.

Had adopted Spottie

But it paid off. A woman who happened to be staying at the Cape Girardeau Safe House for Women noticed the picture of Spottie, and thought it looked remarkably like a cat that had made itself at home there at the shelter, which is more than two miles away from the Cunninghams' home. And the kids staying at the shelter had kind of adopted Spottie. If this was indeed Spottie, the children at the shelter were going to be minus a new friend.

A woman from the shelter brought the cat in question to the Cunninghams' house. As soon as Amy saw the cat, she had no doubt. The girls called Eric immediately at his office. "It's him! It's him!" they yelled into the phone.

"Apparently the lady who brought Spottie home had a little girl, also, who had kind of grown fond of Spottie," recalled Eric. "The little girl really didn't want to give him up, but her mom reminded her of how she would feel if Spottie were her cat."

A goodbye hug and a kiss later, and Spottie was back with Amy and Rachel. They don't intend to let him out of their sight ever again.

Their advice to other kids who lose pets?

"Ride your bike around the neighborhood, make a flyer and then put it on Channel 5," Rachel said.

"And then hope they go to a safe house," Amy added.