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A family’s cat disappears in Yellowstone National Park and has to travel 800 miles back to California
Suffolk

A family’s cat disappears in Yellowstone National Park and has to travel 800 miles back to California

Hundreds of miles of wilderness and the constant threat of predators couldn’t stop a California cat from returning to her family.

Rayne Beau – pronounced “rainbow” – is a two-year-old cat who disappeared in June after running into the woods during a family trip to Yellowstone National Park.

Now – three months and more than 800 miles later – the little cat is reunited with her owners.

Benny and Susanne Anguiano, Rayne Beau’s owners, spent nearly their entire trip to the national park searching for their lost cat. Benny doused himself in bear spray and wandered through the woods while calling for the cat. The couple even used the calls of Rayne Beau’s twin sister, Starr Jasmine, to lure the cat out of the woods. USA Today reports.

None of their efforts were successful and after days of searching, their reservation at the park expired. Knowing they couldn’t stay forever, the couple left the park devastated. The rangers assured them they would call if they spotted the cat, but they feared they would never see their pet again.

Adding to her despair was the fact that her other cat, Starr Jasmine, was struggling to cope with the loss of her sister.

Despite the brutal grief that comes with losing a pet, there was a fitting sign from nature that suggested Rayne Beau might be OK: Susanne saw a double rainbow as they reached Idaho, and she knew that somewhere “her cat was being taken care of.”

This eventually turned out to be true. Three months later, the family received a call from an animal shelter saying they had found Rayne Beau. The couple was skeptical at first, thinking it was a scam or a mistaken identification, and were careful not to get their hopes up too much.

“I said, ‘Take a picture. I want to make sure I don’t drive three and a half hours and it’s not my cat,'” Benny told USA Today. “And they did. About 20 minutes later they sent a picture and yes, it was him.”

But even after seeing the photo, the family remained skeptical. They couldn’t bear the feeling of losing their cat a second time, so they tempered their expectations and prepared for the worst.

Upon arriving at the Placer SPCA in Roseville, California, all of those concerns were blown away—as soon as they saw the cat, they knew it was their Rayne Beau.

“When we finally found out, we were in tears. We all hugged each other and cried,” said Susanne.

Rayne Beau was fitted with a microchip, which Susanne said helped the shelter locate his owners.

The cat had survived the long journey from Yellowstone to Roseville – about 830 miles (1,345 kilometers) – but not without complications. Rayne Beau had lost nearly half his body weight, his paws were dry and cracked, and he was malnourished due to poor nutrition during his time in the wild.

Susanne said his weight loss and malnutrition led her to believe that he had not been found or cared for during his absence and had spent most of his journey in the forest.

After some recovery, Rayne Beau has now reached a healthy weight and is sleeping and playing with his sister and new roommate Maxx, who the family adopted to keep Starr Jasmine company in her brother’s absence.

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