Cat rescuer Hope Gold, left, hands Taco to his owner, 13-year-old Sienna Friel, in Coral Springs last week [Courtesy Hope Gold].
A cat missing from his Coral Springs home for nearly a year was found in purr-fect health last week, just ten blocks from where he vanished.
Taco, a six-year-old tuxedo cat with a telltale half-mustache above his mouth, was discovered in a local cat lover’s yard. There, he survived being “beat up” by other felines.
A plea for help was posted online last June in an effort to find the sweet-natured, trusting tuxedo.
Taco had been missing from his Coral Springs home for nearly a year [Courtesy Hope Gold].
“My daughter’s fur baby is missing! He is terribly loved,” Liz Friel wrote of her daughter Sienna’s cat in a June 2023 PawBoost alert.
Taco was last seen on June 1, 2023, in the Country Club neighborhood near Northwest 116th Avenue and Coral Ridge Drive.
It turns out Taco had stayed close to home during his disappearance. He survived a trek across Sample Road and spent six to eight months in the nearby yard, where cats in a community of outdoor kitties roughed him up.
The homeowner who cares for the cats thought Taco deserved a new life in a safe place. She called for help online, hoping Taco could be adopted.
Cat rescuer Hope Gold, right, hands Taco to his owner, 13-year-old Sienna Friel, in Coral Springs last week [Courtesy Hope Gold].
The call was answered by Hope Gold, a cat rescuer, transporter, adopter, and caregiver who founded the nonprofit Castaways Animal Rescue Effort. Gold picked Taco up from the yard on Saturday, took him to a veterinarian for vaccinations, and began readying him for adoption.
But first, Gold used her pet chip scanner to try and find Taco’s original owners. It turned out he was microchipped, but the implanted technology was unregistered.
That didn’t stop Gold, who worked with county authorities to track the chip back to a phone number listed for Taco’s owners: 13-year-old Sienna Friel and her family, who adopted Taco from a Coral Springs PetSmart in 2018.
When Gold called the number, the girl’s father, Coral Springs artist Dennis Friel, answered.
“I told him, ‘I have your cat,’ and he called me immediately and said, ‘he’s been missing a long time,’” Gold said.
“I sent him a picture, and he freaked out,” she continued. “He called his wife and his wife called me and said, ‘that’s amazing. It was almost a year he’s been missing.’”
Liz Friel, who is also an artist, arranged to travel to PetSmart with Sienna to meet with Gold. There, the mother and daughter were reunited with Taco in a scene worthy of a Hallmark movie script.
“They were thrilled, they were crying,” Gold said. “They just couldn’t believe it. [Taco] remembered his other kitty siblings and doggy, and it was all kumbaya.”
Taco, who had previously lived inside and outside the Friel home, will now remain indoors.
In an online post after the reunion, Liz Friel wrote:
“Taco has been found and he is home safe and happy! Almost 1 year our handsome quirky fur baby was lost. Even though we put up laminated flyers and posted on pet sites … he went way out of his territory. Thanks to a good Samaritan who called Hope Gold at Castaways Rescue and his microchip … he’s home again.”
Gold, who often sees cats suffer while living outdoors, was thrilled at Taco’s fairytale ending.
“It was really very gratifying because it doesn’t always end that way,” Gold said.
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