Draper, a cat named after wandering 'Mad Men' protagonist, returns after almost 2 years with another family
Draper was last seen by his owners prior to major floods in Dawson Creek, B.C., in 2016
After spending nearly two years living off another family, a wandering B.C. cat has returned home.
Draper, named after the Mad Men protagonist famous for regularly leaving his family, was adopted by Kaitlyn Hiebert of Dawson Creek, B.C., in June 2012.
He went missing in May 2016, shortly before major floods hit the city in northeastern B.C., and after several weeks of unsuccessful searching, Hiebert had to tell her two young children he was gone.
Though she held out hope, Hiebert was still shocked when she received a text from a friend at the South Peace Animal Hospital saying they may have found Draper, and even more surprised when she was reunited with him a few hours later, on the evening of April 5.
"I was shaking," she said in a Facebook post describing the reunion.
Watch a video of Hiebert's children seeing their cat for the first time in nearly two years.
It turned out Draper had found another family to live off since running away from home, regularly coming to them for food and attention. However, given his wandering nature, he never stayed long, and the family assumed he was returning home.
Recently, though, they decided to take him to a vet clinic to make sure that was the case. From there, a faded tattoo helped connect him back to Hiebert.
"I'd heard of cats coming back six weeks later, nine months later ... but not two years," Hiebert said. "So, I was trying not to get my hopes up."
She thinks Draper was living in a nearby park, as he would often wander off for days at a time prior to his long-term disappearance.
Now, Hiebert's trying to adapt Draper to a more domestic life than he is used to, especially since Dawson Creek has new bylaws requiring pets to stay on their property.
"I've got him a harness," she said. "As soon as it's warm out, he's going to be meowing to go outside."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
