Bella Comes Home!

Written by: Bella's family

Bella's home again after a long absence.

After nearly three years, our beloved cat Bella has been reunited with her family. Bella’s long adventure away from home started one after in September 2022, when she was let outside during daylight hours for one of her routine neighborhood explorations--but failed to return.

Bella joined our family as a tiny kitten, as our daughter adopted her from the Clarke County Animal Shelter. For the first several years with us, Bella was strictly an indoor cat. Over time, family members gradually relented to Bella’s persistent meowing to be let outside. Bella delighted in exploring our immediate neighborhood and often brought home wiggling "gifts" she wanted to share for our dinner table. We lovingly declined her many unappetizing offerings.

Bella brought tremendous joy to our household. She grew up alongside our two older cats, and while they tolerated her youthful hijinks, it was clear that. Bella was the most adventurous, athletic, entertaining, and loving of the trio. I suspect that they reluctantly acquiesced to Bella becoming the alpha because they no longer had the energy to keep up with her.  

Bella before her long absence.

When Bella didn’t return home that beautiful September evening, we stayed up all night looking for her with the expectation that she would return to our door by morning, begging for breakfast. As the hours went by without Bella’s return, we concluded that some tragic accident must have occurred.

I then commenced an extensive search: I immediately drafted a lost cat poster and asked our neighbors if they had seen her that morning. Within several days, I posted multiple neighborhood-wide public notices with our HOA, distributed over 200 posters on the many neighboring streets, contacted the Loudoun County Animal Shelter, visited every nearby veterinary hospital, and began handing out hundreds of lost Bella cards to everyone I encountered on local sidewalks and trails.

When Bella was a kitten, we had Dr. Corey at Stream Valley Veterinary Hospital implant a HomeAgain microchip during her first vet visit. Therefore, I placed a lost pet notice on the HomeAgain website that week, with hopes that Bella would be quickly returned home. Five months later, I was still searching the neighborhood day and night and immediately responding to potential sightings from helpful neighbors to no avail. We gradually came to the sad conclusion that Bella had succumbed to a tragic and violent encounter with a fox, cayote or vehicle.

Not knowing what had befallen her was heart-wrenching to our entire family, especially for our daughter, as Bella had kept her company every night for seven years.

Two years and nine months later, I received a call from the Loudoun County Animal Shelter informing us that Bella was at the shelter recovering from surgery. Someone cared for Bella during all those years, thinking that she was a stray, and eventually took her to the shelter for treatment at their low-cost medical clinic. The shelter had scanned her HomeAgain microchip to identify her and wanted to know if we wanted Bella back after all those years. Of course we did!

Bella is now home where she belongs and is gradually adjusting to life with her two new feline sisters. I've recently adopted a kitten and a one-year-old adult cat after Bella’s two original playmates had passed away from old age. Bella is now the senior member of our reestablished three-cat household, and we are all ecstatic with her return home.

Bella’s neighborhood explorations are over; however, she will permanently remain an indoor cat. Our special thanks go to Dr. Corey for the wonderful care she has given all our cats over the years as we have been devoted clients of Stream Valley Veterinary Hospital since it first opened twenty-five years ago.