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‘Like a fairytale’ cat rescue Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Originally published in The Chronicle Vol. 140 March 2, 2021

ZOE GOTTLIEB chronicle2@countrymedia.net

A neighborhood cat is back in his owner’s arms after a successful searchand-rescue effort led by a dog with a prize-winning sniffer. In the days leading up to Friday, Feb. 18, Dennis Newman of Scappoose, was perplexed by what appeared to be a downturn in his cat’s physical health. Nevertheless, Dennis carried out business as

She’s used to ‘find it.’ She knows what that means. ~ Audrey Vasconcellos, friend and neighbor

usual at home. “I let him out Friday morning at 7:30,” he said. “He hadn’t been feeling good Wednesday, Thursday, a couple of days before that. I was a little leery about letting him out, but I let him out, figured he wouldn’t go very far because he was fairly weak for some reason. Never did see him until Monday night.” Cad, short for Cadillac, came into Dennis’s life when a neighbor friend discovered a nearby family had left town, abandoning their cats and dogs. Coincidentally, Dennis had lost his feline companion to cancer and needed a friend.

“His friend caught him and brought him here to give him to Dennis because he knew that Dennis missed his cat and needed a replacement cat,” neighbor Audrey Vasconcellos said. “Or another cat, I should say.” When the two became acquainted, Cad was in rough shape. “He was five-and-threequarters pounds when I got him,” he said. “You could count every rib on him.” From that point on, Dennis became Cad’s nurturer, and has been for four years. Cad also became a permanent fixture in Dennis’s life. “I just showed him I had food,” Dennis said. “He’d show up at nighttime and stick around. He decided to be my buddy because he knows I got food.” “He’s good company,” he added. “If I’m outside he’ll find me.”

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The search As Dennis wandered outside that Friday afternoon looking for Cad, who was typically at his beck and call, he was surprised to find no trace of him. Audrey and Dennis spent 20 hours apiece scouring the surrounding area for Cad. “Lifted hoods on parked cars (to) see if he’s in the motor wells, in the frames of cars,” he said, at which point Audrey jumped into the conversation, rattling off examples of where they searched. “(We) crawled on our backs under trailers, looked through all the brush, all up above, all down by the creek,” she said. “Everywhere.” Audrey recounted Dennis’s state of mind as the

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Zoe Gottlieb / The Chronicle

Cad reacts to the photo being taken by The Chronicle.

days went by. “Dennis was pretty devastated when he was gone,” Audrey said. “I mean no eating, no sleeping. He was pretty shattered.” “We knew he was probably close because he was weak, and he never really leaves the yard,” she explained. On Monday, the search pressed on, and Dennis came up with a suggestion the pair had never thought

of before. Dennis instructed Audrey to bring Anela, her dog with a sharp sense of smell, to lead the search effort. With Anela’s history in Nose Work and Barn Hunt competitions, an American Kennel Association competitive sport where dogs hunt for rats in PVC pipes, Anela appeared to be fit for the job. “She’s used to ‘find

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it.’ She knows what that means,” Audrey said. With Audrey following, Anela sniffed out the grounds and closed in on a nearby shed. “The dog couldn’t see underneath the shed, but it ran back and forth and had its nose underneath the flooring part of it and could smell him,” Dennis

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