Indian Wells, CA
If you drive on the 10 freeway in Palm Desert, chances are you’ve seen a billboard with a picture of a black and white cat named Midnight. On it, the owner, Amy is begging for help to find her beloved cat and offering a $5,000 reward.
Frank Corvino the deputy director at the Coachella Valley Animal Campus says it caught his eye, "It’s kind of heartbreaking to see that someone has gone to that length to try to get their pet back."
He wondered the story behind the billboard and we did too . So we called the number to find out .
Amy Hope was happy to share her story about her beloved cat Midnight. We met at her part time home in Indian Wells. She was quick to point out
She says in the year since her tuxedo cat Midnight disappeared, she’s done everything imaginable to bring her home safe from advertising in the local papers in both English and Spanish to contacting a pet psychic, "I had one session last fall and i had another session in January," adding the psychic told her, "that midnight’s still alive."
Hope says she’s had Midnight since it was an eight week old kitten and also adopted the cat’s twin sister. And while she finds comfort in Midnight’s twin sister Barney, finding Midnight would make her family whole, "Because they’re sisters I would like them to be together."
Corvino says while says while the billboard is unusual, missing cats are not, "Department-wide we take in almost 15 thousand cats a year," adding that statistics for reuniting owners with their missing cats are not good, "Out of this particular shelter … last year we had I think we had just under 40 cats that we were able to return to their owners, out of about 4000 cat impounds so it’s dismal."
He says among the reasons: Unlike dogs, it’s not mandatory to register and microchip a cat.
But in this case midnight is micro-chipped and this owner believes in miracles, "It means everything to me that I could get my midnight back … I am going to hold out hope."
if you’ve seen Midnight call Amy Hope (610) 496-5942 or you can call KMIR News at (760) 340-1623.
