“Tom the Lost Trucker Cat” has been present in Sauk Rapids after going lacking greater than a month in the past, 8.5 miles from the place he was initially misplaced. Contributed / Facebook
SAUK RAPIDS, Minn. — After greater than a month and eight.5 miles from the place he was misplaced, “Tom the Lost Trucker Cat” has been discovered and can quickly be reunited together with his homeowners.
Tom went lacking within the early morning hours of Jan. 17 from his proprietor’s semitrailer on the Pilot Travel Center in St. Cloud. Tom was discovered and recognized on Tuesday, Feb. 27, by the evening shift crew at C4 Welding in Sauk Rapids.
St. Cloud LIVE spoke with Tom’s homeowners, Marie Sanchez and Angel Anthony Garcia, on Tuesday evening. The couple was on the street in Oregon, hauling a load to Washington. They stay in Yuma, Arizona.
“We did not give up. Every day, we thought about him and just kept checking our Facebooks, like to see if … anybody (had) seen him,” Sanchez mentioned. “There was days when I guess I was kind of losing hope. … But it goes away. You know, like, ‘No, he has to be out there.’ ”
Knowing Tom’s persona, Sanchez mentioned she didn’t assume Tom would go too lengthy with out human interplay.
“The fact that he ended up at a welding shop and they said he was so sweet … It doesn’t surprise me,” Sanchez mentioned. “Because Tom, he loves human interaction. He loves people.”
“We were just dog people, to be honest with you,” Sanchez mentioned. “My husband’s family, they have two cats, and so that kind of opened us up.”
The couple adopted Tom from a rescue of their hometown in October 2022.
“Tom was the one that definitely caught our eye and stole our hearts the moment we met up,” Sanchez mentioned.
In their time on the street, the couple has solely met two different truck drivers with cats. Mostly, they see dogs.
On the evening Tom went lacking, the fridge trailer the couple was hauling instantly shut off. Garcia went out to examine on it, leaving the door of the truck cab barely open, and that’s when Tom obtained out.
It was a really chilly evening, which made them fear about Tom’s welfare. Garcia left the truck each half-hour, calling for Tom, shaking his deal with can, placing out his meals and litterbox — something to lure him again. When it obtained gentle out, Sanchez went exterior with their canine to attempt to discover some tracks.
“Sometimes when he hears her barking … he’ll come to her,” Sanchez mentioned. “It was like he just vanished.”
“The moment we drove out of the Pilot and were at the highway, I was crying,” Sanchez mentioned. “I was devastated. … I can’t even explain the feeling. My heart was broken.”
They had been simply passing by means of central Minnesota delivering a load and didn’t know anybody from the realm. Garcia mentioned seeing his spouse cry made him put in some additional effort to seek out Tom, so he discovered a St. Cloud neighborhood social web page and posted about Tom.
The lacking put up mentioned Tom was a yr and a half old and comes if you name his identify. It additionally mentioned Tom likes the sound of treats being rattled in a container and is all the time carrying a blue bow tie collar with a blue bell. Their put up obtained numerous traction, which they weren’t anticipating.
“This town where we’re from is nothing like St. Cloud. In our town, it’s like, well, a cat’s just a cat,” Sanchez mentioned. “We were very surprised at the amount of love and caring that people have for animals there. … We’re so grateful for those people.”
They obtained related with somebody from the realm who turned their go-to contact person. She made posters and indicators and created a devoted quantity to subject recommendations on Tom.
St. Cloud space residents put in numerous work to seek out the cat. A Facebook group went up. They had been crowdsourcing, looking for which different vans and drivers had been within the car parking zone the evening Tom disappeared and hoping to examine safety digital camera footage.
It was within the early morning hours of Tuesday, Feb. 27, that the couple heard their telephones ring.
“I get scared. Because for me … if you got a call at that time, that’s not usually not a good thing,” Sanchez mentioned. But it was their contact person saying they’d discovered Tom and had scanned his ID to substantiate his id.
All of this was documented through Facebook posts and images of Tom, which have lots of of likes, feedback and shares.
Sanchez was advised that Tom was very skinny and dehydrated. Volunteers took him to a veterinarian to get checked out, and he’s now staying with a skilled rescue volunteer.
The rescuers performed a recording of Sanchez’s voice to calm Tom down. Sanchez additionally talked to him whereas they had been on the cellphone, and she or he might inform from the meowed response that it was Tom.
“I know that he knew that was his mom,” Sanchez mentioned.
Sanchez mentioned it was somewhat humorous to consider Tom being soiled.
“Because Tom is one of those bougie cats. … It’s rare that you’ll see Tom dirty,” Sanchez mentioned. At home, their different cat, Dulce, is outdoor solely and hunts for meals.
“Tom has seen her eat field mice in front of him and he is just so disgusted. He won’t do it,” Sanchez mentioned.
The couple isn’t certain after they’ll be capable of reunite with Tom. Finances are tight. They’re involved with the corporate Garcia drives for to ask if there’s a load that may take them to or by means of Minnesota quickly. Otherwise, Sanchez mentioned they’ll have to attend till they return home to Arizona in mid-March to discover a option to get to him.
The directors of Tom’s Facebook group began an Amazon Wish List to assist help Tom till he’s reunited with Sanchez and Garcia. Excess provides shall be donated to an area rescue.
While Tom was lacking, Sanchez mentioned she regretted leash coaching him and taking him out of the truck cab. At first, he was scared to go away the truck.
Sanchez and Garcia have already made plans to forestall this from taking place once more. They’ll get him a crate for the truck cab, and Garcia has already seemed for a collar with GPS.
“Because I cannot go through this again,” Sanchez mentioned.
They’re trying ahead to having him again. When the truck’s transferring, Tom claims the highest bunk as his area.
“If we go up there … (it’s) as if we’re invading his privacy or something,” Sanchez mentioned. “Once the truck stops moving, he’ll jump down and you know, try to be all up in our business and play around.”
At evening, he sits on the dashboard.
“He just watches all the other trucks, people passing by. He’ll stay there all night,” Sanchez mentioned.
Tom will even quickly be reunited together with his furry buddies, the couple’s canine and different cat, who each observed Tom was gone.
“They’re our babies, you know, because we don’t have kids,” Sanchez mentioned. “So that’s why they’re everything.”
For extra about Tom and easy methods to assist, go to the Tom the Lost Trucker Cat Facebook group.
