How Midnight, a cat missing out on for 16 months in Dubai, was reunited with his owners

Dubai: A British expat in Dubai has actually mentioned his delight after reuniting with his cat that had actually gone missing out on for almost 16 months.

David Tobias and his family were left “heartbroken” when Midnight, a long-hair Persian black cat fondly called Mino, went missing out on from their home in The Greens neighborhood in December 2021.

“Mino loves to go outside and we had never thought twice about it as we live in a ground-floor apartment. He would always come back after a short time,” David said.

But on December 6, 2021, Midnight did not return. David feared Midnight might have been taken by a prohibited breeding gang. “But Mino was neutered and therefore of no use to them. They perhaps found this out and decided to dump him in Deira. We think he must have been left to the streets very soon after he was picked up.”

Midnight had actually been on the streets of Deira for around 12-13 months. In this time, his health had actually degraded.

David remembered how the family had actually frantically searched for Midnight. “Between December 2021 and June 2022 we were posting in various groups, calling vets and clinics to see if he had been brought in. He was micro-chipped, so we could not understand why he had not been brought in. By the end of June 2023 we had given up hope and presumed he was dead. It was such a heart-breaking moment for the family,” he said.

David said Midnight was very first discovered in December 2022 by a lady called Whimper who took him to a veterinarian. “She called another cat rescuer named Farangis for help as [Midnight] was literally on the verge of death. Farangis arranged with the vet to get subsidised treatment for him and he was in the full time care of the vet for well over a month. I was told that it took five weeks for the vet to get him to a condition where he could be released,” David included.

Farangis informed Gulf News that Midnight was discovered in a malnourished condition. “He was struggling to breathe,” she included.

“Whimper brought him to her home and contacted me for advice. We decided to have the cat sent to the clinic for a consultation and what we found was shocking. He was diagnosed with pneumonia, sinus infection, eye infection, ear mites, ringworm [fungal skin infection]. He was missing a good number of teeth and his whiskers had been cut.”

David said: “Midnight was subsequently moved to a foster home where a lovely lady by the name of Kia took care of him between February 2023 and March 26, 2023 – the day he was returned to us.”

Midnight had a microchip and ultimately the center that had actually broken him was reached and able to react that they understood who the owners were.

Touched by the amazing return of Midnight, David has actually now chosen to compose an illustrative piece – a kids’s story about his misadventure.

David said: “There is no central database of the microchips. The clinics have to email all of the vets across Dubai to see if the chip gets a hit.”

Farangis said: “I think the take-away message of reuniting a missing pet with it’s family is the correct way of using a microchip. We need to responsibly microchip our pets and register them with the Dubai Municipality. The microchip will only be effective if it’s in a database with the families’ updated information. That responsibility falls on the owner. In Midnight’s case, David and [his wife] Dalila had notified their clinic that he was missing or stolen.”