ROCK SPRINGS — It’s a heartwarming story that might rival the plot of the basic film “Homeward Bound.”
Tyler, a spirited cat who retains his trucker proprietor firm on the highway, is about to finish a unprecedented 1,800-mile journey that started a month in the past once they had been separated in Fernley, Nevada.
For that first leg of his journey, Tyler someway discovered his means 670 miles to Rock Springs, Wyoming.
As co-pilot to Chad McIntyre, a long-haul truck driver who lives in Decatur, Illinois, Tyler had been touring cross-country for extra a month when he someway managed to flee at a Nevada truck cease Nov. 29.
“My husband had just fed him and pulled out the cat litter box he keeps on the floorboard to empty it like he had done 100 other times,” Brandi McIntyre informed Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “And then went inside and got himself something to eat and cleaned up and when he came back out, he realized he was gone.
“He has no idea how he got out because he’s not small. He’s a 15-pound cat and my husband did not see him sneak by.”
A Frantic Search
Chad McIntyre searched the truck cease excessive and low looking for his pal, however to no avail. Frantic and scared for the cat, he referred to as his spouse to inform her the unhealthy information.
Brandi McIntyre went to work instantly flooding the trucker social media community and misplaced and located animal teams on Facebook with pictures and data asking everybody for assist to find their feline companion.
Five days later and greater than 670 miles east of Fernley, Tyler confirmed up on the Rock Springs Flying J Truck Stop the place somebody fortunately discovered him wandering round. Recognizing his pleasant nature wasn’t indicative of a feral or stray cat, Tyler was taken to the native animal shelter the place they scanned him and located he was microchipped.
“He was so friendly and just so calm,” stated Rock Springs Animal Shelter Supervisor Lydia Gomez. “They knew that he belonged to someone. But we thought it was someone local.”
To the shock of Gomez and Tyler’s homeowners, who believed he was nonetheless lacking in Nevada, it was fairly a shock for all of them to seek out out he had traveled that far.
“When she called to tell us he was in Rock Springs, I was like, ‘Wait, what? Where’s that?’ I couldn’t believe it when she said, ‘Wyoming,’” Brandi McIntyre stated.
Tyler’s Just A Nomad
While the journey has been an extended one for Tyler, it’s not his first style of the nomadic life. In reality, the McIntyres had initially encountered him when he mysteriously appeared on their doorstep a couple of yr in the past.
After a quick stint on the native animal management the place nobody claimed him, the couple adopted Tyler, giving him a loving and without end home.
Just precisely how Tyler made all of it the way in which from Nevada to Rock Springs remains to be unknown, however what is evident is he needed to have discovered some assist. It’s possible one other trucker picked the cat up after which he escaped from that truck or may have hitched a journey on the engine compartment, Gomez stated.
“That would have kept her warm,” she stated. “There’s little nooks and crannies all over the engines of those trucks where he would have hid and stayed safe and warm.”
Going Home
Initially, Brandi McIntyre needed to drive to Rock Springs herself to get Tyler, however her husband, who drives by way of Wyoming and was involved in regards to the winter roads and the unpredictable climate, requested her not to try this.
They additionally mentioned flying the cat home, however Gomez stated it could have been too costly, so she contacted Joan Nickum, an skilled pet rescuer, to assist facilitate the transport.
With practically twenty years of organizing pet transports, Nickum stated the whole course of relies upon totally on volunteers, referred to as relay legs, to make it occur. Each driver covers about an hour or 90 minutes of journey the place they go the animal to the subsequent. Most transports take a minimal of 15 volunteers.
“There’s no way we could do it without the many, many volunteers who use their time and their own money and cars to make these transports,” Nickum stated. “This is all done by volunteers across the country willing to give of themselves to make these rescues happen.”
While the transport crews attempt to take “direct” routes that isn’t all the time attainable. In this case, that route would have been straight from Rock Springs by way of Nebraska to Illinois, Nickum stated. However, there have been points with getting in that route, in order that they needed to make a detour taking the cat first to Denver, the place he spent Thursday and Friday nights.
Tyler’s subsequent cease will land him in Kansas, the place Joan will decide him up and hold him for an evening. From there, she plans to take him to St. Louis, Missouri, the place he will likely be reunited with the McIntyres.
“He’s grounded from going on the truck for a while,” Brandi McIntyre stated. “My husband and I just have decided that maybe it’s better if he stays home for at least a while and then maybe down the road he can go again.”
Those Microchips
Beyond facilitating a joyous reunion, the story of Tyler the truck-stop tabby additionally underscores the essential position of microchipping pets, Gomez stated. She emphasised the significance of pet homeowners getting their animals microchipped, including they want to ensure they register the microchip.
“You have no idea how many animals I have seen that have microchips that haven’t been registered,” she stated. “And they do no good if they haven’t been. It’s such a simple thing for pet owners to do is to get their pet microchipped and then register the microchip because collars fall off, but we can always find the owner with a registered microchip.”
For Tyler and the McIntyres, that microchip means no less than one trucker and his truck-stop tabby will journey many extra miles collectively.
