A British family have been reunited with their pet cat after it had been missing for 5 months. The cat was found in Kortenberg, a Flemish Brabant municipality midway between Brussels and Leuven.
The British family were passing through Belgium on holiday last summer when their cat Munch escaped from their car at Meerbeek, near Kortenberg. Thanks to the actions of an alert local, Munch was reunited with his family in England last week. Venessa Maes of the Cattitude cat sanctuary in Leefdaal (Flemish Brabant) told VRT News that Munch arrived back home just in time for birthday of one of the family’s children.
At the end of August last year, the family was driving through Belgium on holiday. They made a short stop at a carpark in the village of Meerbeek, near Kortenberg. Cattitude’s Venessa Maes told VRT News that “It was during this stop that their cat jumped out of the car. They tried to catch her, but eventually they had to continue their journey”.
The family launched an appeal on local Facebook pages. Cattitude also helped search for the cat, but this was to no avail. Local people in Kortenberg looked for Munch and distributed flyers appealing for information about her whereabouts.
After more than 4 months there was finally news about Munch. A woman from Kortenberg spotted a cat she hadn’t seen before on CCTV and contact Cattitude straight away. A volunteer placed a cage trap near to where the cat had been spotted.
A scan of the cat’s ID chip revealed that it was Munch. Venessa Maes called the family to tell them the news.
"These really are the nicest calls that you can make. First it was really quiet. They were completely overwhelmed and absolutely no longer thought that they would ever see their cat again”.
Before Munch could return to the UK she first had be be check by a vet and obtain the relevant documentation as her pet passport was with her family in England. Last week the family came to collect their cat.
Health and hadn’t lost weight
Although she had been living on the streets of Kortenberg for 4 months, Munch was in good health and hadn’t lost weight. "We presume that she found food somewhere. A lot of people put food outside for stray cats, hedgehogs or birds. She was in good health and hadn’t lost an extreme amount of weight. This story shows the importance of ID chips and how important it is to report a missing cat”.