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Lost Cat Goes on 200-Mile Journey to Find Its Way Home: ‘Hard to Explain’

Jan. 21, 2013 2:06pm Liz Klimas

The West Palm Beach, Fla., owners of a cat that went missing in November on a family trip nearly 200 miles away from home were beyond surprised when the feline turned up on a neighbor’s doorstep a couple months later. But the “Homeward Bound”-like tale has scientists baffled too.

Florida Couples Cat Holly Returns Home After Being Lost 200 Miles Away for Two Months

The Richter’s reunied with their cat Holly. (Photo: Barbara Fernandez/New York Times)

The Richter family’s cat, Holly, ran off in Daytona after being spooked by fireworks at an R.V. rally and then turned up two months later on New Years Eve in her hometown 190 miles away, the New York Times reported. When she was found only a mile from the Richter’s home, she was emaciated and weak, but tell-tale markings on the tortoiseshell and a microchip showed it was in fact the very same cat.

Watch this local news report about the 4-year-old cat’s return:

“I really believe these stories, but they’re just hard to explain,” Marc Bekoff, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Colorado, said to the Times. “Maybe being street-smart, maybe reading animal cues, maybe being able to read cars, maybe being a good hunter. I have no data for this.”

Stereotypically, dogs are portrayed as being able to get themselves back home from a strange location, but the Times reported scientists saying this is still only in rare cases.

The jury is still out on whether Holly was able to make her way home by associating smells with certain directions or if she navigated based on what she saw. The Times also reports scientists thinking that Holly might have also hitched a ride based on the state of her paws, although evidence still suggested she had journeyed far on pads.

Feline behavior more generally has been studied but the animal’s ability to find their way back home is still largely not understood, as noted by the Times:

New research by the National Geographic and University of Georgia’s Kitty Cams Project, using video footage from 55 pet cats wearing video cameras on their collars, suggests cat behavior is exceedingly complex.

For example, the Kitty Cams study found that four of the cats were two-timing their owners, visiting other homes for food and affection. Not every cat, it seems, shares Holly’s loyalty.

KittyCams also showed most of the cats engaging in risky behavior, including crossing roads and “eating and drinking substances away from home,” risks Holly undoubtedly experienced and seems lucky to have survived.

Still, when it comes to cat’s navigational skills, Peter Borchelt, an animal behaviorist in New York, told the Times it is unlikely anyone will ever conduct a study in which they would drop cats off in different locations and see if they make it back home. So, for now, just how Holly and other animals are able to make such impressive trips remains a mystery.

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Comments (32)

OniKaze
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 11:30am
I’m happy she found her way home…. Cats are amazing animals. I feel bad for people who hate cats that have never owned one…. They are much cooler than most people think. I am glad my cat is terrified of going outside without me… I can leave my door wide open and she just stops right at the door frame… (Not sure why… but she has never had the desire to go outside….)…

Awesome when dogs do this… Even more impressive when its a cat, since we all know most cats would not care to go home, and just spend its time finding a new one…

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- FullThrottleConservative
  Posted on January 23, 2013 at 1:14pm
  I wouldn’t necessarily say they wouldn’t want to go home! I have a cat, Ozzy, who would walk my brother one block to school every day and always come home right after. Someday’s he would go up to the school around the time it let out and he’d wait for him and walk him back. :D He’s such a sweet kitty.
  
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TROONORTH
Posted on January 22, 2013 at 4:09pm
Cats have spent thousands of years since arriving on this planet, civilizing humans and training them to such a point where they can be of some use. Remember, dogs have owners. Cats have staff.

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oldincarolina
Posted on January 22, 2013 at 3:53pm
Cats and other animals know many things that humans will never know.

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ReaganThatcherChurchill
Posted on January 22, 2013 at 3:33pm
“Dead reckoning” like homing pigeons

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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on January 22, 2013 at 2:57pm
It’s not hard to explain. The cat hid under the RV in one of the many compartments. Fell out or jumped out near the house at the gas station or RV storage location. Somebody ‘adopted’ it or left food out for it along the way. The cat gradually made it’s way to the neighborhood it was more familiar with.

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tharpdevenport
Posted on January 22, 2013 at 1:31pm
It’s like Death Cat, only the opposite:
telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7129952/Cat-predicts-50-deaths-in-RI-nursing-home.html

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begreen
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 11:03pm
tHIS IS ALL TOO SIMPLE CATS ARE KNOWN TO HAVE 9 LIVES.

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ThoreauHD
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 10:02pm
“Still, when it comes to cat’s navigational skills, Peter Borchelt, an animal behaviorist in New York, told the Times it is unlikely anyone will ever conduct a study in which they would drop cats off in different locations and see if they make it back home.”

Liberals have done this to 50 million human fetus’ without batting an eye lash. Why not test it on animals too?

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Totally Domestic
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 9:17pm
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home!!!! You go Holly!!!!!!!

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garylee123
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 8:13pm
Very easy to explain…..it heard the can opener.

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dogwater
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 7:48pm
Thr RV rally where the cat got lost is not that far from Interstate 95.
Maybe the cat simply followed 95 all the way to West Palm Beach.

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Rayblue
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 6:40pm
While humans use only a portion of their brain is it also true of animals ?
An animal, dog or cat specifically, need only live a single year to find it’s way home from anywhere on a single continent. Possibly from around the world though I’ve never heard of this happening. Animals live in a different world than us. This is a fact that is often overlooked. They are not perceiving the same way we do. A single year sees the cat go through all the changes of position of the sun and moon and the subtle differences in strength of pull and push of solar energy and tidal gravitation, heat and cold and smells associated with the seasons. Though it would seem like a genius trait to know the position of it’s home at any given time of year it’s the difference of perception of the world that guides the animal, homes the migration or remembers the smell of the air drifting on the breeze.
Maybe.

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piper60
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 6:38pm
Perhaps they could try the experiment mentioned at the end of the article under 2 conditions:1. put a kit tie cam on the cat’s collar, and 2. No more than 10 miles for distance.

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flatbroke
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 5:22pm
My Lord the cats have more since that most people, how will we ever find our way back to a constitutional republic. I love cats by the way, little fuzzy monsters have been in my life sinse childhood, you have to love a cat.

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- piper60
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 6:36pm
  I too love cats.
  
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- christhefanatic
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 8:06pm
  I had a wonderful cat…who was actually a person shaped like a cat.
  
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LimaBean
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 4:58pm
Aw, they’re so happy to have her back.
Maybe this kitty’s luck just fell into place in her favor. She started traveling in the right direction, maybe she hitched a ride (who know’s), finding enough food to stay alive, coming in contact with the right people who’s actions eventually helped her get back into her owners arms. Kitty intuition? Sure, why not….maybe there’s something to that song, The Cat Came Back.

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Jezreel
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 4:03pm
Cats and other animals can find their way home because God gave them the ability and instincts to be able to do that. The answer is that simple. It would be good if man could find his way back home to the Lord that easy. The older and older people get when they are in sin and their hearts get harder and harder, it gets harder also for them to find God.

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powedj
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 3:22pm
This story could have been a cat-astrophe.

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ellietoo
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 3:08pm
That is some really rugged territory for a cat to travel. I would sure not want to walk that area in bare feet. It is full of burrs and sand spurs and all kinds of nasty things. That is one brave little cat. Those people should consider themselves blessed to have such a loyal, smart and loving cat.

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biohazard23
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 2:51pm
Awwww, what a pretty kitty. :)

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media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 2:31pm
Or somebody read the micro chip and had the cat dropped off, end of “mystery”?

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- GlezeleVayne
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 3:02pm
  Why wouldn’t they return the cat to the homeowner directly?? For someone to go to the trouble of bringing the cat to a vet to have the microchip read and then not bring it to the family strikes me as less than plausible.
  
  I have 2 stories which affirm the point made in the posted story:
  
  Story #1 — We had neighbors in a small city, both families had postage stamp gardens. Our new home had a nice big yard. Our neighbors were worried about their cat getting hit by a car, so they gave her to us. On moving day, she came along and within a few days she disappeared. A month or so later, our neighbors called us. Their cat had returned home, thinner and a bit bedraggled, but happy to be home.
  
  Story #2 – When my mother was a little girl, she had a long-haired calico cat that she adored. The family was moving but no one could find the cat when it was time to leave. So, dad, being a goal oriented soul, decided he couldn’t wait for the cat. My mother crying all the way to their new home, was heartbroken. Several months later, the calico cat showed up, looking half-starved, with matted fur.
  
  Neither cat had ever been on any “pilot trips” so it’s hard to understand how they found their way home. I have a theory — perhaps cats can locate themselves according to the position of the sun, much like honeybees. That theory might be blown by cats who have been indoors their entire lives. Perhaps a 100% indoor cat wouldn’t be able to navigate their way home?
  
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- drs1969
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 3:41pm
  ‘When my mother was a little girl’ was too far ago for chips! This cat had a psychic connection with it’s owner. They are that smart. I’ve heard these stories before.
  Personally, I’ve had a cat to find it’s way home from 3 miles away. It got away from a relative at a rabies clinic. Took it 2 days. I had no doubt it’d be back, and faster than I expected.
  
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forthepeople
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 2:28pm
Smarter than some Humans with a GPS / Google Maps ?

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Joe_The_Patriot
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 2:27pm
A happy story on such an unhappy day..hooray for that kitty…

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Gary_K
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 2:27pm
It is not hard to explain. The cat knows where it has come from, unlike what we know about barry soetoro.

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Zipit
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 2:23pm
I wonder if Joe Biden could find his way home if, (when spooked by some of those imaginary gunshots that he hears), he were to find himself lost?

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- Gary_K
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 2:30pm
  Would he even know he was lost?
  
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- Gary_K
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 2:31pm
  Besides, biden couldn’t find himself in a mirror.
  
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ExO
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 2:13pm
Well I must say this is more interesting then what the last family is wearing….

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