- That’s one tough kitty, I tell you what.
Do you remember The Incredible Journey or its ‘90s remake Homeward Bound? If not, they tell the story of two dogs and a cat that make a dangerous journey through the Sierra Nevada to return home to their owner.
A California housecat recently re-enacted the premise of the movies. This cat just did so in real life and over a much longer distance than the animals in the films.
We’re talking about hiking 800 miles back home.
Meet Rayne Beau (pronounced “rainbow”). The two-year-old Siamese kitty belongs to Susanne and Benjamin Anguiano from Salinas, California.
The past June, the Anguianos were visiting the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, when Rayne Beau ran off into the woods. Despite searching for days, they never found the cat and were eventually forced to return to California empty-handed.
Two months passed and all the Anguiano’s could do was hope Rayne Beau would learn to survive in Yellowstone. Then, they got a call nobody expected.
Rayne Beau had been found in California. Somehow, the kitty had known which way to go and hiked home all the way from Yellowstone.
Now, he is back home with the Anguianos and doing well. And it really is Rayne Beau — he has a microchip to prove it.
Into the Woods
On June 4, the Anguianos were camping in the Yellowstone National Park with their towed RV. Not having wanted to leave their cats — Rayne Beau and his sister Star — home, the couple had decided to bring them along.
Their vacation, however, went awry from the start. As they arrived at the campground, Susanne leashed up Rayne Beau and Star to move them from the couple’s truck to the RV trailer.
That’s when Rayne Beau slipped out of his collar, jumped out of the truck, and ran into the forest.
“I screamed. I swear, I think the whole campground heard me,” Susanne told the Los Angeles Times.
She ran after the cat, trying to catch him. But if you’ve ever tried picking up a cat that doesn’t consent to it, you know how hard that is.
Finally, Rayne Beau disappeared into the woods. His family reported him missing with the park rangers’ office and spent the rest of their vacation looking for the kitty.
Yet, despite their best efforts (and the tuna treats they left out that we’re pretty sure constituted a bear risk), the cat didn’t come back.
“He never showed up. Then came the day when we had to leave, and that was horrible,” said Susanne.
Yet, what could they do? After five days, the Anguianos packed up and headed back home — without Rayne Beau.
The only thing they could do was hope that Rayne Beau would learn to catch mice in the forest and find a comfortable hole to spend the winters.
The Cat in the Bushes
Fast-forward to July 31, and we’ll find Alexandra Betts on her way to her job at Sutter Roseville Medical Center in Roseville, California. As she was walking across the parking lot, she heard a cat yowling in the nearby bushes.
Her coworkers told Betts the cat had been there for days, screeching all the while. They figured it belonged to somebody in the area.
Betts, however, wasn’t convinced of that. She ordered cat food through DoorDash and went out to feed the kitty during her lunch break.
It immediately became clear this was no street cat. The puss immediately recognized the sound of a cat food can opening.
However, the cat was on its last legs, what with the three-digit temperatures. So, she took the kitty home and, after letting it recover for a few days, took it to the Placer SPCA.
The staff scanned the cat, just in case it would happen to have a microchip with the owners’ information. And what do you know — it did.
According to the system, the Siamese cat belonged to Susanne and Benjamin Anguiano from Salinas, California.
One Long Walk
When Susanne Anguiano received a call from a number she didn’t recognize on August 3, she didn’t pick up. Must be a scam call, she figured.
Eventually, Placer SPCA got in touch with Anguiano’s daughter, who delivered the news to her mother. However, Susanne still didn’t buy it and ran an online search to see if the number really belonged to the Placer SPCA.
But when Benjamin walked in and told her that he’d received a text about the cat, the reality sank in. Rayne Beau had been found, and photos from the agency confirmed that it was indeed their cat.
Some way, somehow, the cat had hiked the nearly 800 miles from Yellowstone to California.
The next day, the Anguianos drove four hours to Roseville to pick up Rayne Beau. He was in relatively good condition, but he had still lost almost half of his weight.
Additionally, as a testament to his long walk, the cat’s paws were dried, cracked, and calloused.
All’s well that ends well, though, and Rayne Beau is back with his family. Yet, perhaps the happiest of all is Star, who hasn’t left her brother’s side since he came home.