Kitten stolen from Waterloo, Ont. pet store has been found

Crosby has finally been found.

The 12-week-old kitten, who was stolen from a Waterloo, Ont. pet store, is now in the care of a local cat rescue.

On Nov. 24, a man asked staff at the Pet Valu location on Weber Street North about the kittens that were up for adoption. He then reached inside a cage, scooped up Crosby and put him inside his jacket before the leaving the store.

A 58-year-old Waterloo man was arrested last Thursday and charged with theft under $5,000.

Crosby, however, was still missing.

Jan Schneider, the CEO of Pet Patrol, a Kitchener-Waterloo cat rescue, announced Wednesday that Crosby had been found.

“This poor little cat has passed through many people’s hands and homes over the last two weeks,” she said. “He has arrived in Pet Patrol care lesser in weight [and] with a cold. But we will take care of him. Someone came forward and did the right thing.”

She did not say who returned the kitten, but in an interview on Thursday, she said they were kind.

“They realized it was the right thing to do, so we did meet up with them and as soon as we saw him, they pulled him out of their coat, and that was it. We knew that was our boy,” Schneider said.

“It’s our understanding that he was in four different places in that 10-day period of time and was sold twice.”

Since then, she said he’s been eating a lot and has been playing with every toy in sight at his foster home.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Schneider said she credits the outpouring of support from the community for Crosby’s safe return.

“It was enormous. That is what brought him back was the media and the social media,” she said.

“Gone are the days of just putting up posters and hoping for the best. We were able to track down who took him, where he lived and then eventually to the person who had him.”

Catherine Benedetto, the manager of the Pet Valu store where Crosby was stolen from, said it’s a relief to know he’s been found safe.

“It’s just so happy. I worried that it was going to be a bad ending but this is good,” Benedetto said.

“The past couple of weeks we’ve had a lot of people coming in and asking about where he is and stuff like that, just wanting to know more. We’ve also had people calling and just a lot of people wondering – almost every person coming in is wondering – about if we have any updates.”

Prior to being taken, a family was already lined up to adopt Crosby. For the next few weeks, he’ll remain at a foster home to recover before going to his forever home.

Although Crosby isn’t available, Pet Patrol has many other cats that are looking for homes.

“Pet Patrol does the very best that we can for the cats in our care. We are a registered charity so donations are always welcome to keep up with the cats’ medical care,” Schneider said.

“We do have quite a lot of cats in our care right now, so there are a lot ready and available for adoption.”