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Cat’s disappearance near Disneyland sparks a 2-year tale of heartache and hope

July 11, 2023

Michelle Chang thought the wind sound echoing through the car was just her imagination as she drove south on the 5 freeway toward Irvine. Her weekend duffel bag was in the trunk, alternative music filled the air and Coco, a Snowshoe Siamese, was resting atop her kennel as she approached Disneyland.

Chang was 21 and almost home, excited to surprise her mother with Coco’s visit on Mother’s Day weekend in 2021. The UC Santa Barbara graduate had taken the family’s beloved 8-year-old feline up north so she could have company during the pandemic.

After missing for two years, Coco relaxes in Michelle Chang’s Irvine living room on Saturday, July 8, 2023. She was reunited with her family after a Disneyland guest found the gentle cat wandering outside her hotel near the resort, became concerned for her safety, and called a cat rescue group who discovered she was microchipped. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Sisters Michelle Chang, 23, left, and Sarah, 21, give Coco a kiss after reuniting in Irvine on Saturday, July 8, 2023. The good-natured pet had been missing for two years. She was found in Anaheim and given to a rescue group by a family visiting Disneyland who became concerned for her safety. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Sisters Michelle Chang, 23, left, and Sarah, 21, are reunited with Coco, in Irvine on Saturday, July 8, 2023. The good-natured pet had been missing for two years. She was found in Anaheim and given to a rescue group by a family visiting Disneyland who became concerned for her safety. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Sisters Sarah Chang, 21, left, and Michelle Chang, 23, are reunited with their family cat, Coco. She jumped out of Michelle’s car two years ago and was just returned in Irvine on Saturday, July 8, 2023. She was found in Anaheim and given to a rescue group by a family visiting Disneyland who became concerned for her safety. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Michelle Chang, 23, is happy to be reunited with Coco, in Irvine on Saturday, July 8, 2023. The good-natured pet had been missing for two years. She was found in Anaheim and given to a rescue group by a family visiting Disneyland who became concerned for her safety. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Michelle Chang is pictured several years ago with Coco. The cat went missing two years ago and was just returned to the family thanks to a microchip and a Good Samaritan. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Coco is released from her pet carrier in Irvine on Saturday, July 8, 2023 and is greeted by Michelle and Sarah Chang for the first time after going missing for two years. The gentle cat was given to a rescue group by a family visiting Disneyland who became concerned for her safety, They discovered her owners because she was microchipped. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Jenifer Brooks and Ed Michalek with the nonprofit group, Kindness2Cats, deliver Coco to the Irvine home of Michelle Chang on Saturday, July 8, 2023, after the cat went missing for two years. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

After missing for two years, Coco relaxes behind Michelle Chang’s TV in Irvine on Saturday, July 8, 2023. She was reunited with her family after a Disneyland guest found the gentle cat wandering outside her hotel near the resort, became concerned for her safety, and called a cat rescue group who discovered she was microchipped. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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As the sound persisted, Chang said she pulled up on the power window buttons to try to make the noise stop. When she turned around and looked where Coco had been perched, the cat wasn’t there.

“I quickly pulled to the side of the freeway,” she said. “I couldn’t find her. I was in panic mode.”

Chang called her younger sister, Sarah, who helped search along the freeway in the dark. The sisters said they half expected to find the cat alive in the bushes and half expected to see her dead on the freeway.

After weeks of the family searching — driving along the freeway and along Manchester Avenue where Coco most likely went missing, posting signs and checking the county’s deceased animal site — the cat with striking blue eyes and white mitten feet, was nowhere to be found. Chang surmised Coco stepped on the window button and “flew out” of the car.

Kim Taylor, their mother, said each Mother’s Day has been bittersweet since. Her eccentric, smart, gentle cat who she taught to sit on command; who liked her ears scratched, but not her belly; and who hated people food, but loved kibble, was gone.

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For two years Mercedes and Oscar Chavez of Grants Pass, Oregon, saved up money to take a family trip to Disneyland for their son Gabriel’s 15th birthday. They brought along their three other children, ages 16, 13 and 7, and one of Gabriel’s friends.

After arriving July 1 for their week-long vacation, the tribe of cat lovers noticed a paper plate on the ground at the Anaheim hotel they were staying at with remnants of dried cat food and then spied a cat “hunkered down, laying on her side near the air-conditioning unit,” Mercedes Chavez said. “She was panting because it was so hot.”

Chavez gave the cat water and inquired with hotel staff about the curious creature. She was given conflicting information. The cat lived at a trailer park next door. The cat was fine and being cared for by hotel guests who fed her eggs off the breakfast buffet. The cat was a stray and no one could catch her.

“But this didn’t sit right with me,” Chavez said. “I kept badgering workers trying to piece together the story. A real stray is apprehensive, but I could tell at one point she had a family because she was super gentle — meowing, rolling over, rubbing against our legs and letting us pick her up.

“She wanted help. She wanted love,” Chavez said.

When the cat tried to follow the family into their hotel room on their second night, Chavez said she burst into tears. “I told my husband that we need to get her to a safe place.”

In the meantime, Chavez went to Target and bought kibble and wet food, she said. “She went crazy and devoured it.”

Chavez then looked up cat rescue organizations. The first one she contacted told her they only spayed, neutered and released cats. But they provided a “huge list” of other places in Orange County that could possibly help.

Chavez contacted each of the approximately 20 organizations through email “any time I had the chance” between theme park fun, she said.

“They either auto replied saying they aren’t taking any more animals because they are at full capacity, or they wanted me to call at a specific time and then wouldn’t answer or I got busy signals,” she said. “It was almost impossible to get a live person to answer.”

Chavez’s logical sense thought, “I already have two cats and we can’t travel back to Oregon with five kids and a new cat.”

But her heart decided, “If we can’t get help, the cat will go home with us.”

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On July 4, “by the grace of God,” Chavez said, Kindness2Cats contacted her. The organization run by Jenifer Brooks and Ed Michalek assured Chavez the animal would go to a good home. Chavez tearfully scooped up the kitty and put her in the portable crate Brooks had brought to the hotel.

“She didn’t fight it,” Chavez said. “I know she knew we were going to help her.”

A full checkup revealed the cat was microchipped. Her health was good, save for one broken tooth, and she was estimated to be 2 years old (She is actually 10).

Taylor was at work when the call came that her favorite pet was alive and well and found in the area the family had searched so many times. She showed the cat’s picture to co-workers and took the rest of the day off.

“I was stunned. I was over the moon. I had a happiness in me,” Taylor said after Coco was reunited with her daughters in Michelle Chang’s Irvine apartment.

At Saturday’s reunion, Coco slinked out of the same baby blue kennel that Chavez tearfully placed her in before saying goodbye.

Before acknowledging the sisters, Coco opened a closet and sat inside, hid behind a TV, and jumped on the same gray couch she years ago had clawed. Then she found Alice, Chang’s other cat, hiding in a bedroom.

Michalek wondered if Coco might have dashed out of the SUV when Chang stopped and opened the door to search for her. He emphasized the importance of never letting a cat travel in a car without being in a carrier, and microchipping and spaying and neutering them.

Taylor said she is forever grateful to Chavez for all she did in reuniting the family and hinted that bake goods may be in Chavez’s future.

Taylor will soon be flying back from North Carolina to California for a reunion.

“I’m going to order pizza and sit with that cat.”

Orange County Register

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Cat’s disappearance near Disneyland sparks a 2-year tale of heartache and hope

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