‘Car wash cat’ reunited with Alberta family after 7 years away

An Alberta feline nicknamed the “car wash cat” has been reunited with her family seven years after she vanished from home.

Sophie returned in time for the holidays, thanks to community volunteers and Good Samaritans who helped her survive a prolonged stay on the streets of Spruce Grove, west of Edmonton.

The long-awaited reunion was a gift to Glenn Stupar. He first brought the fluffy calico home in December 2014 after adopting her from a local rescue as a Christmas present for his youngest daughter Keisha, then 14.

Stupar said he is still stunned that the spunky, fiercely independent cat has come back.

“I got her for her for Christmas and now she’s getting her back two days before Christmas,” he said.

“I joked that it’s the ultimate re-gift.” 

Community Cats Edmonton helped facilitate the unlikely reunion days before Christmas, after spending months attempting to capture the wily creature.

Sophie had taken refuge outside a car wash in Spruce Grove, where she became the ward of local cat-lovers.

“It is extremely uncommon to find a cat that’s been missing for this long,” said Vanessa Freeman, co-founder of Community Cats Edmonton, a non-profit dedicated to rescuing stray and feral cats.

“That’s a credit to the people who were caring for her outside for so long,” Freeman said. 

“Sophie really did touch a lot of people’s hearts.”

For months the cat had been living at the car wash, wedging her large frame into a crevice near the back entrance to keep warm, Freeman said.

Business owners, grocery store workers and nearby condo dwellers took notice and began acting as volunteer caretakers. 

Bob and Maureen Baynes, who live nearby, fed the cat almost daily for more than a year. They named her Flossy and deemed themselves her “grandparents,” Freeman said.

Over time, as more people became aware of the “car wash kitty,” Community Cats Edmonton was called in to help, Freeman said.

“We all kind of love our little Christmas story here and we’re all quite happy that she made her way home,” Freeman said. “It was kind of a full-circle moment for the rescue.”

Escape artist

Repeated attempts were made to capture the calico but the task proved challenging. She was a skittish escape artist and not easily tricked into their food-baited traps. 

“She was quite scared, quite skittish. She had been out there for at least a year,” Freeman said. 

“She was frightened. She had acclimated to her outdoor hidey-hole.She would bolt at even the smallest noise.”

Through spring, summer and fall, efforts to catch the cat continued. She was finally captured in mid-December, lured by another round of meaty canned food.

Once safely in the care of her rescuers, she was surprisingly sweet, Freeman said. 

Life on the streets had taken a toll. As volunteers cleaned her up and cut out her matted fur, she was scanned for a microchip.

To their surprise, a chip was found, meaning she had someone waiting for her.

The rescue was soon in contact with Stupar, who was shocked to get the call. He had long given up hope Sophie was alive.

‘Pinch yourself’

Sophie vanished from the family home in 2017 after wiggling out of a seventh-storey window screen in their apartment.

They had searched and searched for her but had assumed years ago that their beloved family pet was dead.

“You’ve got to pinch yourself,” Stupar recalled. “Like, what do you mean like she’s alive?

“It takes a lot to put me into a state of like tingly numb, you know — like, a shock feeling and that — and that did it.”

Freeman said Sophie represents thousands of stray and feral cats across the Edmonton community. She hopes her story draws attention to the need for trap, neuter and release programs.

She said the reunion, too, should remind owners of the importance of microchipping their animals and continuing to search for a pet that has gone missing.

Sophie was found about five kilometres from where she had gone missing. She was captured on Dec. 15, the day Stupar and his family had gathered to mark one year since the death of his mother, Shirley.

The conversation during that memorial gathering had turned to Sophie and questions about her fate. It felt strangely serendipitous the cat was found that same afternoon.

To the Stupar family, it felt a little bit like magic. 

“We’re all saying, Nanny, what kind of magic did she do now, that we get Sophie back after seven years … it definitely felt like my mom had an influence bringing her home.”

Stupar said where Sophie spent her time away will remain a mystery — and he suspects she may have lost at least one of her nine lives — but he remains grateful to those who helped her.

From living at a car wash to curling up in a warm cozy bed, Sophie is in good health. She returned home in time for Christmas, and posed for some family photos under the tree.

Sophie will live with the little girl, now grown, she was given to a decade ago. Stupar’s daughter Keisha and her fiance, Donny Hendricks, have taken her in.

She enjoys spending her nights cuddled tightly in their bed — not a dirty car in sight.

“She still has some of the old Sophie in her,” Stupar said. “She’s doing great. She’s being well looked after, for sure.”