Cat lost in Yellowstone travels almost 900 miles to reunite with owners

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Lost cat in Yellowstone travels to reunite with owners after he mysteriously traveled 900 miles over two months.

Benny and Susanne Anguiano, a couple from Salinas, California, were reunited with their missing cat after he mysteriously traveled 900 miles over two months. On a trip to Yellowstone National Park in early June, the couple's beloved house cat Rayne Beau—pronounced “rainbow”— was spooked and ran off into the trees. Benny Anguiano told NBC News that a Yellowstone employee stopped by their campsite to warn him that a pack of coyotes had attacked a small dog in the area and that the couple would be lucky if their cat made it through the night. By the time the trip had concluded, Rayne Beau was still missing, Benny Anguiano reported. 

The couple looked for him for four days, they even laid out his favorite treats and toys to try and lure him into returning. When they finally had to drive back to Salinas, California, on June 8, Susanne Anguiano said she was crushed but never lost hope she would find him. During the drive back home to California, the couple was driving through Nevada when they saw a sign, “We were entering the Nevada desert and all of a sudden I see a double rainbow. And I took a picture of it and I thought, that’s a sign. That’s a sign for our rainbow that he’s going to be okay.” 

In August, the Anguianos received amazing news when a microchip company messaged them that their cat was at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Roseville, California, nearly 900 miles from Yellowstone. He was only about 200 miles away from his home in Salinas. A woman who first saw Rayne Beau wandering the streets of the northern California city fed him and gave him water until she trapped him on Aug. 3 and took him to the local SPCA. 

The next day, the Anguiano's drove to Roseville and picked up their cat, who had lost six pounds. “I believe truly that he made that trek mostly on his own. His paws were really beat up. Lost 40% of his body weight and had really low protein levels because of inadequate nutrition. So he was not cared for,” Susanne said. The couple still doesn’t know how their cat got to Roseville but believes he was trying to get home. They have contacted the media, hoping to fill in the blanks. 

The journey took a big toll on Rayne Beau. Before he was lost, he weighed about 14 pounds; when he was found, he weighed only eight. "He was really depleted," Susanne Anguiano told KSBW. "He probably didn’t have a lot of energy to even go further." Rayne Beau safely reunited with his family on Aug. 4, now spends his days playing with his twin sister, regaining his strength, and taking well-deserved catnaps, but the Anguianos are still curious about how he clawed his way home.

How the feline Rayne Beau made it home two months after getting lost in Yellowstone National Park during a summer camping trip remains a mystery. Benny Anguiano said he hopes someone will hear their story and recognize their fearless feline.