The incredible journey of Eddie the cat

Erick Allen and his cat Eddie were just one leg into a move from New York to Texas when Eddie disappeared.

They'd spent the night in a hotel in Pennsylvania, and in the morning, Eddie was simply gone. After an exhaustive search, Erick and his family had to make the heartbreaking decision to keep going and hope that wherever Eddie was, he was OK.

The move to Texas was dampened by the loss of his friend. Not only did Erick miss his cat, but Eddie was also a connection to Erick’s mother. She had adopted him for Erick as a birthday present 12 years before. A few years later, Erick’s mother passed away, leaving Eddie as “a physical, living connection to my mom,” Erick says. He was left with the loss of both of them, plus the unsettling feeling of not knowing what happened to Eddie.

Then, months after the move to Texas, a letter arrived in the mail.

The letter came from Erie Humane Society, an animal shelter in Erie, Pennsylvania, and a Best Friends Network Partner. They had Eddie.

A family had spotted Eddie at a gas station. He was thin and appeared to need help, so they asked for help from the shelter. The shelter staff gave him fluids, antibiotics to treat a burgeoning cold, and a delicious bowl of wet food that he dived right into.

Meanwhile, they tried to contact the phone number associated with Eddie’s microchip, but it was no longer in service. However, from the chip, they were able to find the shelter from where Eddie had originally been adopted.

[Cat missing for 19 months reunited with family]

From there, the Erie Humane team was able to get Erick’s former New York address and sent him a letter saying Eddie had been found. That letter was forwarded to Erick’s new address in Texas.

Erick was at a coffee shop in his new hometown when, he says, “My wife called me saying that a letter came in by certified mail.” It was from the shelter in Pennsylvania, and Eddie was there with them and safe. “There wasn’t much thinking — just a swell of uncontrollable emotions that he was alive,” Erick says.

Erick called Erie Humane right away. But there was a hitch to his happiness: He was in Texas and couldn’t get to the shelter to pick up his cat.

Erick looked at all his options, including pet transport services, but found they were out of his budget. The shelter team was working on their end too to get Eddie back to his family. Emily McCullor, Erie Humane Society’s director of business and marketing, had been deeply moved by Erick’s love for his cat and believed it had to be possible to reunite them. But how?

The first idea was a chain of volunteers taking shifts of the drive from the shelter to Erick’s home in Texas. “However, because Eddie was an escape artist, we had serious concerns about having him change hands so many times,” Emily says.

The next thought was taking Eddie on a plane. But that was a no-go, too, when one of the shelter’s veterinarians advised against it due to Eddie’s age.

“So one of our staff, Brian Carroll, offered to make the three-day trip and get Eddie home,” Emily says. A GoFundMe went up, and before long, people from the community had donated enough money to cover travel, lodging, and all the health exams and certifications Eddie would need (plus a little extra, going toward cats’ care at Erie Humane).

Erick was happily overwhelmed when he learned what the shelter and community made possible. “I think I was a bigger emotional mess knowing that I was actually, truly going to have him back in my life,” he says.

Until it was time to set off, Eddie was relocated to Brian’s office — he’s director of community outreach and a humane police officer — so the cat could get used to his chauffeur. “He hid in a ‘tent’ we built for him initially, but within a day he was out giving Brian all kinds of affection,” says Emily.

About five months after Eddie first got lost, Brian set out with the cat in a rental car for their three-day trip — livestreaming much of the journey because so many people had become invested in Eddie’s story by then.

“Eddie was great in the car,” Brian says. “I would ask him how he was doing here and there and tell him how much farther we had for our next stop. He did have to listen to numerous podcasts and my singing from time to time.”

The local news covered Erick and Eddie’s happy reunion — which, though it wasn’t planned, took place on National Cat Day. Then, Brian returned the rental car and flew back to Pennsylvania while Eddie became a Texan.

Eddie was always an aloof type of fellow during his years in New York. That’s changed in Texas, Erick says. He’s become more comfortable with strangers, enjoys sitting in people’s laps, and even lets his new human sister pick him up. “He’s also taken to guarding her as she plays with him and constantly cuddles and pets him,” Erick says.

Having Eddie back, Erick is now feeling at home in Texas. He’s also become a big believer in the power of pet microchips — and the importance of keeping them up to date.

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And perhaps most of all, Erick feels buoyed by the people who didn’t know him and still worked so hard to make sure he and his cat would be back together. He hopes others feel buoyed by it, too.

“It's a story of hope in a time when we really need a good, hopeful, heartwarming tale,” Erick says. “There are people out there that have good hearts — people that want to reunite a person with their pet.”

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.