Miss Fancy, the lovely black and white cat sits beside me on my desk as I write. A year ago, while visiting my Mother, a days drive away from my home, I got a call from my husband telling me Fancy had been missing for two days. Needless to say, I was on the road back home arriving early evening. I walked the neighborhood, calling her name, but she didn’t hear me. I then printed up numerous photos of her and posted them all over our addition and surrounding home additions.

My friend who has worked with Pug Rescue for years told me to pray to St. Francis of Assisi, as he was the patron saint of lost animals. That’s exactly what I did. For three days and evenings, I searched Fancy. The last evening I was in an addition directly behind mine, sitting on their park bench resting my tired feet and as I sat, I prayed, “Please, St. Francis, I need to find my Fancy”. I walked on around the block behind the park. A car passed me, a garage door went up and the couple got out of their car and noticed me. “Hello”, the wife said. “Hi”, I answered, “would you by any chance have seen a lost little black and white cat?” “Oh my goodness, I just read an email about a lost cat. Come in the house and let me look that up”, she said. I did. Her husband asked me how I came to that area to look for my cat and I explained, adding the prayer to St. Francis.

“Come out here by the pool”, he said with a grin on his face. There by the pool was a statue of St. Francis! I was given the phone number of the woman who found a black and white cat, who lived quite a distance down the road from where we were. I called and left a message questioning the email information and in deed, if she had my cat. I realized if I had not sat on that bench and prayed, I would have missed their arrival home.

The next morning, I got a call, and was asked very seriously, to describe my cat. As Fancy has black fur around one eye and white on the other, black fur down he back with a white diamond placed in the middle, she was convinced she had my cat. She asked me how I got her number, etc. I told her the St. Francis story and she said, “Oh, I am going to cry”! There is an unwritten sign over my house that says, “St. Francis Send Me Your Lost Animals”.

When I arrived at her home to take Fancy home, she was holding her like a baby. Fancy didn’t let me hold her that way! I was told how she found Fancy curled up in a ball under her tree, with her two very large, cat hating dogs walking around there all morning, not noticing a cat. She picked her up and realized she was ill. She immediately took her to her vet; the diagnosis was she was dehydrated and stressed. She got treatment and a new litter box and food bowl….. She stayed in their guest room away from the dogs, who by then knew there was an invader in their home…. Either she or her husband took turns spending time with Fancy so she wouldn’t be alone.

Not only did I get my cat back, but I made a dear friend and became a firm believer that St. Francis means business.

Wilma from Nevada