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Fair College student reunites with missing cat
Cianna Gibson reunites with her cat Oreo, who spent four years as an office cat.
Cianna Gibson reunited with their cat Oreo, who spent four years as an office cat at Baldwin Animal Hospital this week.
“I still remember the day, it’s like a gut feeling,” said Gibson.
Four years ago Cianna Gibson, a fine art students at New York Fashion Institute of Technology from Baldwin, lost her cat Oreo in June of 2018 after installing a sliding patio door with her three friends. She said as she and her friends walked in and out of the house to install the door, Oreo managed to escape through a crack. She said the next morning they searched for Oreo all day but couldn’t find him.
This week, Gibson reunited with her cat, which was adopted as an office car by Baldwin Animal hospital after four years apart. She said it was chaotic but heartwarming to reunite with Oreo.
“It was reassuring because most of my family never got closure about what happened to Oreo,” said Gibson. “There was a possibility he died, or that another family took him in.”
Gibson said her parents Jody and Isaac Gibson, went to the Baldwin Animal hospital for a last minute check up on their dog when they noticed the cat sitting in hospitals front office looked familiar. This prompted Jody and Isaac Gibson to take and post a picture in the family group chat, which spurred chaos as they couldn’t believe the cat was alive and well in their hometown.
Gibson said she and her brother Caleb struggled to identify the cat with just pictures so they went to the Baldwin Animal Hospital and confirmed that was their cat Oreo. She said
“As soon as we walked in Oreo jumped off his bed and onto the desk and began meowing at my brother,” said Gibson.
Debbie Rogers, an office manager at Baldwin Animal Hospital from Merrick, said the animal hospital took care of the cat in 2018 after they received a few phone calls about a cat crying for two days in the area by some neighbors. She said a neighbor who lived nearby brought the cat into the hospital for a scan, and the neighbor insisted they could not keep the cat because of her three dogs.
Rogers said they searched the cat — which has white colored fur with distinctive black markings and was 5 years old at the time — for a microchip or a collar with the owner’s information. The office then named the cat Bony James, after the American Jazz saxophonist.
Rogers said Jody and Isaac Gibson first noticed Bony James perched in the front office, unnerved by the familiar looking cat they lost four years ago. The next day Caleb and Cianna Gibson came in with pictures of Oreo as a kitten and officially reunited.
“There was no mistaking it. The cat had really distinctive markings,” said Rogers. “Once the cat looked at the Caleb in a familiar manner, we knew the cat recognized him.”
Rogers said they brought the cat to the exam room and confirmed the cat had no tags, microchip or collar. They noticed the cat was not fearful of humans but rather calm, and well mannered, so they decided to keep it as an office cat.
Rogers said the cat was spoiled and adored in the animal hospital office. She said the cat is now 9 nine years old and would celebrate Bone Day on (date) its birthday, and celebrate with black and white cakes from Sugarberry Bakery Café in Rockville Centre.
Rogers said the car had a tendency to notice people in emotionally distressed states, for example when a client has to put down a pet, and would purposefully approach them and purr loudly and soothingly. She said the cat will be missed but she’s glad it reunited with its original family.
