Jessica McLean has had a rough month.
When her mother died unexpectedly four weeks ago, Miss McLean moved back to Timaru temporarily to help support her father, bringing her two cats Cosmo and Astro with her.
As the furry duo had visited plenty of times before they were well schooled in the area and knew how to get back to the house.
However, this time the home was unsettled: renovations on her parents’ house were well under way, and there was a lot of grief and sadness in the air.
Amidst it all, Cosmo disappeared.
Miss McLean said she was desperate to find her beloved cat.
Working remotely, helping her father with his business and trying to grieve the sudden loss of her mother, she simply wanted him home.
‘‘If someone has hit him with the car, I just want them to tell me.’’
Her father was helping to search for the missing pet ‘‘on top of everything else’’, she said.
Cosmo went missing from Quarry Rd on Sunday, April 7.
A few scenarios were running through her head: he was stuck in someone’s yard after they had closed their shed up after doing yard work at the weekend; he had been hit by a car and been disposed of in a rubbish bin (as the area’s rubbish day was Monday); or the proximity to the scenic reserve made her wonder if he was lost there.
She said the last time she saw Cosmo he wandered off towards Otipua Rd after jumping in and out of her bedroom window a couple of times.
She had put flyers in letterboxes and door-knocked intensely throughout the area — even door knocking as far away as the length of Canada St.
But no-one had any information.
Cosmo was a cat thief . . . stealing courier packages and an array of bizarre items from a mechanic opposite her house in Dunedin.
Through lockdown he was bringing home a face mask a day.
‘‘Occasionally a fabric one.’’
But ‘‘zip ties are his absolute favourite thing,’’ she said.
In fact, she had just bought a box of them the few days before he went missing, which she was going to make into a toy for him.
Miss McLean is offering a $1000 reward for his safe return, or $200 if his body can be located.
Anyone with information can call 027 365-8434.
