ROSEVILLE – On July 1, Alex Bitts was on her way to work at Sutter Roseville Hospital when she stopped outside near a sewage ditch after hearing the “yowling” of a cat.
“Cats don’t normally howl like that unless something is wrong,” Betts said.
She went downstairs and looked into a small concrete tunnel, where she found a cat barely hanging on.
“It took me a while to get the cat close enough to see it because it didn’t want to come any closer,” Betts said.
Betts is a true animal lover and did what she thought was right. She brought canned cat food to work via DoorDash and brought a cup of fresh water during her break.
“When I opened the first can, he stuck his head up. He recognized the sound, and that was a sign to me that it was a pet,” Betts said.
The next day, Alex returned with more food and a doghouse. She managed to get the cat inside, took her home, cared for her for a few days, and eventually surrendered her to the Placer SPCA in Roseville.
A month earlier, Susanne and Ben Anguiano were camping with their two cats in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. As they were transferring them from the truck to the trailer, their cat, Rayne Beau, pronounced “Rainbow,” escaped and ran into the woods. They notified a park ranger after failing to find him, only to be told the cat might not make it out alive.
“He says, ‘Good luck. If your cat doesn’t make it home tonight, good luck,'” Ben said.
After five days of searching, they gave up and returned to their home in Salinas, California.
“I felt like I was letting him down,” Suzanne said.
After the cat was surrendered to the Roseville SPCA, she was scanned for a microchip. The scan revealed that the cat was registered to Susanne Anguiano. It was Rayne Beau.
“I still couldn’t believe it. I was just so overwhelmed that this could be true, and I didn’t want to get my hopes up,” Suzzane said. “From where we were, it’s not even plausible that a cat would come out of Yellowstone.”
Their theory is that Rayne Beau knowingly or unknowingly hitched a ride with someone who happened to live in Roseville.
“A miracle. God put these signs. When we look back, all the signs were there,” said Ben.
The news of Rayne Beau’s nearly impossible journey shocked Alex.
“I think things turned out the way they were supposed to. It wasn’t necessarily me, but someone working through me,” Bitts said.
Placer SPCA says an impossible journey home like this was only made possible by Rayne Beau’s microchip. If you have not microchipped your pet, Placer SPCA can do it for just $15.
