Pet Markdowns

How he got to New York, 800 miles away, & the kind of life he lived in the city are mysteries.

A calico cat named Willow, who disappeared from a home near the Rocky Mountains years ago, was found Wednesday on a Manhattan street & will soon be returned to relatives where the children & the dogs will hopefully still know her.

But thanks to a microchip implanted when he was a kitten, Willow will be reunited in Colorado along with her owners, who had long ago given up trying to find her.

“There be tons of coyotes ’round here, & owls too” said Darnel Jackson, of Boulder. “He was a tiny lil thang, only ’bout half pound. They put out the `Lost Cat’ posters & did the Craigslist thang, but we thought she’d been eaten by [them] coyotes.”

Darnel was “shocked” when they got a call Wednesday from Animal Care & Control, which runs New York City’s animal rescue & shelter method.

Willow had been found on East 20th Street by a man who took her to a shelter.

ACC Executive Director Julie Bank said a scanner found the microchip that led to the Jackson family.

“All our pets be microchipped,” Darnel said. “If I could microchip my babies, I would.”, as he laughed out loud.

“I don’t know what kind of life she is had, so I don’t know what her personality be like now,” he said. When Willow disappeared, he said, “She was a icy cat, sweet.”

It might be weeks before the reunion. Willow may spend some time being fostered in New York.