- April 22, 2024
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For 439 days, Kaitlyn Seesholtz commented on every "found" Facebook post for an orange cat, called her name while she walked her dog, and never, ever gave up hope that she would see her favorite pet, Happy, again.
And finally, Happy came home.
It was her and her boyfriend's sixth anniversary, and he noticed a familiar face standing outside the front door of their Daytona Beach apartment. Her boyfriend, Joseph Hope, called out and the cat ran.
Eventually, the couple was able to coax the cat inside. It was then that they noticed the markings on it's head that could only be Happy's.
"Her name came up once I realized she had a big 'H' on the top of her head," Seesholtz said in a Facebook post. "One day out of the blue I said let's name her Happy! She made us happy."
The two have had the cat since she was a kitten. Seeshotlz's brother-in-law rescued her after she was thrown from a car.
"She was there through everything," Seesholtz continued. "My father's passing only a few months after we got her, losing my childhood home that I called home for 22 years, my first move, and then our first apartment together. Never once did we think of her not being apart of all of it."
Soon after her father died, Seesholtz noticed another marking had appeared on Happy's head: an 'M.' Her father's name was Mark.
"Maybe it always there, I'm not sure," she said, "but I noticed it once my father died. She comforted me when I missed him most."
Overjoyed to have her cat back home, Seesholtz encourages other people with missing pets not to give up.
"One day, hopefully, they'll make their way home," she said. "I've spent four years cuddling her, 439 days missing her, and now I plan to spend the rest of her life spoiling her even more."
