A great love for animals and a real network of solidarity made it possible to save the life of a cat, returning him to his family who lives in Romania. It’s the story of “Snowball”, spotted at the end of April, in the fields in front of Bagnara, in via Casalmaggiore, by some residents of the area while they were walking with their dogs. The sickly cat stood out in the grass because it was all white, it seemed blind. Paolo and Manuela, moved, began to feed him and also built him a shelter, which unfortunately someone saw fit to vandalize. Those were days of incessant rain, and the LAV volunteers, alerted to the presence of the cat, waited for the bad weather to stop to intervene to help “Snowball”. And so they did.
After a first failed attempt to recover the cat, now exhausted, a trap cage was placed by Moreno, one of the volunteers, who, not without difficulty, managed to recover it at night. Monday 29 April the cat was immediately taken to the vet. Disastrous situation: the poor animal was malnourished, dehydrated, dirty and full of ticks. It was cleaned and tested and it turned out that he was microchipped, but not in Italy. At this point Maria Pia Superti, Lav manager of Cremona, turned to an international site, managing to obtain the name of the owner, i.e. a gentleman of Romanian nationality residing in Aubagne, France. Ats, at Superti’s request, also moved to trace the owner through the microchip, sending an email to the French Ministry of Agriculture, but without receiving a response.
Once contacted, within a few hours the family, a Romanian couple living in France, responded and explained what had happened. A month before her, Carmen and her husband had entrusted the cat to her uncle and cousin to take it to Romania to Carmen’s mother, to make her feel less alone. But something unexpected had happened. The two had stopped at a service station to change the litter, but had done so outside the vehicle, scaring the cat, which had escaped. And so the two had decided to continue the journey without telling Carmen what had happened. Only after a week did the woman learn that the cat had never reached her mother.
In the meantime the animal was treated and pampered in the Rosa e Carletti veterinary clinic in Cremona and a real solidarity race to help the association cover the costs of bringing the cat home. After many calls and conversations, it was finally “Snowball”, or rather “Boule de neige”, in the French way returned to the family, who arrived in Cremona in the night between Friday and Saturday.
For once, a story with a happy ending. Thanks to the microchip, the cat was able to return home. It seems, however, that there is no official communication system between states that makes it possible to identify an animal found on the territory, in this specific case in Italy.
Sara Pizzorni
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