Missing cat found 10 months later hanging out at resort hotel in Laguna Beach

Ten months had passed since long-haul truckers Alfonso and Sherrie Meletiche lost their family cat, Baby, while making a delivery in Southern California.

The couple had pulled over at a stop in Rancho Santa Margarita in Orange County when a loud noise caused the feline to break free of her harness and run away.

A search team could not find her. Weeks turned into months. Hope turned into despair.

Ten months later the Meletiches, who live in Fort Myers, Fla., got a surprise call. It was Gail Landau, the founder of Catmosphere Laguna Foundation, which finds homes for rescued and abandoned cats and kittens.

Baby, a Maine Coon mix, had been located. It turned out she had been masquerading as a guest at the five-star Montage Laguna Beach hotel. Landau was able to find her owner because the cat had been outfitted with a microchip, a tiny transponder about the size of a grain of rice implanted in the animal’s skin.

A year earlier, Alonna Meletiche, Alfonso and Sherrie’s daughter, had taken the cat to the veterinarian for its shots and made the decision at that time to have her microchipped, which has become increasingly popular as a way to reunite pet owners with their lost animals.

“I was shocked,� Alfonso said of Landau’s call. “I couldn’t believe it because I, myself, gave up. I said, ‘There’s no way. There’s no way that we’re ever going to get her back,’ but when Gail called, I was overwhelmed, and I was also shocked.�

He immediately booked an airline ticket to California. But then just as quickly he had to cancel his trip when Baby disappeared again from Landau’s house in Mission Viejo.

“I said, ‘Oh my god.’ It’s like feeling this emptiness all over again,� Alfonso said, “just when she was right there within reach.�

Baby would eventually be found again — at the Montage.

The Montage Laguna Beach in Laguna Beach.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

When Baby was hanging around the Laguna Beach hotel the first time, passersby had taken to feeding the cat, including resident Nancy Welch, who wound up corralling the feline after her second flight.

“The big mystery is how did the cat get down from Mission Viejo to Laguna,� said Welch, who commented that Baby was living her best life at the luxury resort. “What I keep laughing about is... it’s like a marketing ad for the Montage, that the cat got herself back to the Montage after being at Gail’s house.�

The Meletiche family received the good news. Alfonso flew into John Wayne Airport this week, nervous that Baby might not remember him.

She did.

Baby, pictured, is a Maine Coon mix cat.

(Courtesy of the Meletiche family)

Alfonso and Baby were on flight home to Florida on Monday.

“I must have shared that story with the whole airport,� Alfonso said. “Everyone that can hear me, I told them, and they were in awe. They were shocked. They said, ‘What? 10 months?’ I said, ‘Yes, 10 months.’

“I sort of gave up a little bit, but my wife never gave up, and as soon as she heard news, she demanded that I book a flight and go over there and pick her up.�

Microchipping pets has become a welcome relief for many pet owners in recent years as it has grown in popularity.

Susan Hamil, a founding director of the Blue Bell Foundation for Cats, a sanctuary for senior cats in Laguna Beach, said all Blue Bell cats are microchipped. A native of Baton Rouge, La., Hamil looked back on her experience providing aid after Hurricane Katrina in discussing the importance of the technology.

“Hurricane Katrina was a life-changing moment in this country for a lot of things, and one was lost pets,� Hamil said. “I went back and worked in Katrina and worked at the LSU [Louisiana State University] vet school for a few weeks, and if those pets had been microchipped, they could have gotten back, they could have been reunited with their owners in a matter of days or weeks.�