Missing cat turns up on Facebook years after hurricane

BLACKWOOD, N.J., Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A New Jersey woman whose cat disappeared during a hurricane said she spotted the feline on Facebook alive and well more than two years later.

Jeana Hoffman said her cat, Sid, disappeared from her Blackwood home during Hurricane Irene in August 2011, and she feared he would never be seen again when more than two years passed without any sign of the lost black-and-white cat, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday.

However, Hoffman said she identified Sid from his distinctive marks in a picture shared Wednesday on the Facebook page of the Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees.

The picture led Hoffman to Linda Rosenson Coe, 55, of nearby Cherry Hill, who had taken Sid in after he had been found in a neighbor's back yard during the hurricane.

Hoffman visited Coe's home and verified the cat, who had been re-dubbed Ansel Catems after black-and-white photographer Ansel Adams, was the same feline that disappeared in 2011.

"He's very quirky. The way he would walk, the way he would play," she said. "It's the same boy."

Hoffman said she decided to let Ansel Catems stay with his new family.

"It was really the right thing to do," Hoffman said. "Taking him away would have confused him, and it would have been hard for their family, and they are great people."

Coe said she was happy she could reunite Hoffman with her lost cat and was overjoyed when Hoffman said he could stay.

"This is just the best outcome we could have imagined in what has really been a very heartbreaking situation for another family. I'm so happy they are pleased with how we are taking care of their beloved pet," Coe said.