Maine cat becomes Florida snowbird—goes home after seven years

By Russ and Tiña De Maris
We can understand why RVers from Maine become snowbirds. After all, with winter temperatures in the single digits, it’s enough to freeze your digits! We can’t wrap our fingers (numb or otherwise) around how many Mainers flee to the south each winter but, no doubt, there’s plenty of them. Mainers often become Florida snowbirds. But a weird story out of Florida shows not just “hoomons” make for snowbirds.

Celebration turns to sadness

The story here goes back nearly seven years, to 2015. A Chesterville, Maine, woman, Denise Cilley, was at that time celebrating her daughter’s 10th birthday. On hand at the festivities, the family cat, Ashes. But the joy of the celebration got a serious downturn when Ashes turned up missing.

A family friend, Janet Williams, told WABI-TV that the Cilleys looked for Ashes in vain. “They looked for her for quite a while, and they sadly concluded she probably had become prey for a predator,” recalls Williams.

Ping from a microchip

Fast forward to 2022. Denise Cilley, Ashes’ “cat mom,” must have been about knocked over when listening to a voice mail. The call came from Florida. A veterinarian in the Sunshine State had run a scanner of the “missing” cat, only to get a ping from a microchip. Ashes had been found, seven years, 1,500 miles or more away from home. A Florida snowbird cat?

How did Ashes make the way from Maine to Florida? Perhaps she crawled into someone’s RV basement storage compartment for a nap and caught a free ride. “I have interrogated her quite strictly and she is not talking,” Williams said. In any event, Ashes will be making a much quicker return home. Somebody ponied up air fare for the feline Florida snowbird.

Happy travels, Ashes!

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