Grieving Owner Places Ad For Missing Cat Named Miss Torti July 2003  Miss Torti, missing since the 14th of October 2002. Likely to be with someone who does not know that Miss Torti is owned and missed by its owner.
It's no different for Margaret DeSimone, whose beloved cat Miss Torti bolted for the door and vanished one morning nine months ago. "She sleeps in my bed. I would never want anything to happen to her. She's a family member. I love her," said DeSimone, an attorney. Unable to stop worrying, she took out a $600 quarter-page ad in Sunday's Courier-Post asking, "Please Help Us Find Our Little Girl." After months of placing classified ads, haunting local shelters and following up on hundreds of sightings leading to animals, both dead and alive, DeSimone placed the ad in hopes of a breakthrough. The ad features three photos of 5.5-year-old, 7.5-pound Miss Torti, one of them with her companion, DeSimone's 10-year-old domestic shorthair, Lucky. It also describes how Miss Torti was adopted from the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1998 and how she disappeared from DeSimone's Blackwood townhouse on the 14th October 2002. DeSimone's love affair with Miss Torti began when the lawyer and her boyfriend were vacationing for a week at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef and Morning Star Beach Resort on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. During that vacation, DeSimone had an experience that tugged at her heartstrings. "There were 50 feral cats on the beach. They were hungry. They were scrawny. We'd hold out food and they would grab it. It broke my heart," she said. Although DeSimone and her boyfriend returned home after a week, they contacted the Humane Society on the island and told them they wanted to give some of the cats a home in the States - permissible since St. Thomas is a U.S. territory. The society set humane traps - cages that would shut when the cats entered after being enticed with food placed inside - and took four cats that seemed friendly and adoptable back to its veterinary clinic. After DeSimone paid about $1,000 to get the cats their rabies shots, treat them for worms and make sure they were free of feline AIDS and leukemia, the cats were flown to Philadelphia. DeSimone picked up the cats, a male tabby she named Taboo and three dark tortoiseshell sisters with Siamese features. DeSimone adopted out the other three cats, but she bonded with one tortoiseshell and named her Miss Torti. "She was in my lap in a day," DeSimone said. Miss Torti came with baggage. She needed medicine for a chronic digestive condition stemming from her bouts with worms and parasites. One eye would sometimes get runny. She had a birth defect: a short back leg that made her limp. And while she took to DeSimone and her boyfriend, she was afraid of strangers and would hide when company came over. For four years, Miss Torti clung to DeSimone and her feline friend, Lucky - until the morning she inexplicably ran away. Until then, Miss Torti, who is spayed and has declawed front paws, had never ventured outdoors and did not wear a collar or ID tag. DeSimone did have a microchip inserted between Miss Torti's shoulder blades, with an identification number that will show up at shelters that have scanning devices. Searching the area proved fruitless. DeSimone set humane traps, distributed fliers and ran classified ads for six months as a cost of about $75 a week. She continues to follow any leads that come in, but so far none of the cats she has seen - dead or alive - have been Miss Torti. She visits the Animal Orphanage in Voorhees weekly but thinks her best hope might be the county-run shelters in Blackwood and in Clayton, Gloucester County. She also checks in with the Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees and the Animal Adoption center in Lindenwold, which don't take in strays but might come across her pet nonetheless. "I keep a litter box on the front and back porches to help her figure out which house is hers if she's out there. I go out every day and put food out for feral cats, but I don't see her coming out. I don't know if someone who doesn't know she is missing picked her up and feeds her every day so that she got comfortable," DeSimone speculated. DeSimone is especially concerned that Miss Torti is not getting medicine to aid her digestion. She hopes to get some leads from her large ad and may run it again if she gets information that doesn't pan out. She said she will offer a reward for information leading to finding Miss Torti, but hasn't given the amount much thought. "I would pay anything to get her back, though. I would gladly compensate for any expenses anyone has paid for Miss Torti - and then some," said DeSimone, her voice breaking. "I love her. She's like my child. She's out there somewhere. That keeps me going," DeSimone said. |
