Columnist Susan Snyder: Lost cat gives paws for thought

Monday, March 10, 2003 | 8:34 a.m.

LOST: One cat. Gray tabby. Answers to "Missy." NASCAR fan.

Belongs in Oregon.

Deborah Williams realizes that in a city of beating the odds, finding one lost feline is the longest of long shots.

But she doesn't know what else to do.

Williams has been on the phone and on the Internet since Tuesday trying to find her father's cat, which was last seen at the Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort on Windmill Parkway.

"I know this is trivial compared to what is going on in the world today, but it is so very important to the family," Williams wrote in an e-mail she sent Thursday.

She explained that her father traveled to Las Vegas from Umpqua, Ore., to watch the Winston Cup races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the weekend of March 2 and March 3.

Both cats were in the van through the weekend at the resort, Williams, who lives in Washington state, said in a telephone conversation Thursday afternoon.

Her father noticed Missy was missing Monday afternoon when he stopped in Bakersfield, Calif., on his way back to the Northwest, she said.

"My father really feels she never got out of the RV park," Williams said. "I called them. They hadn't found her, but they said they would let the security guards know.

"She's declawed, and she's really picky about her food," Williams said, her voice cracking with emotion. "We lost our mom in June. This was one of her babies. And it's just reopened that whole thing."

Williams called the Las Vegas chapter of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Dewey Animal Shelter.

Armed with a description of Missy and a fistful of Kleenex, I went down and peered through the cat cages at Dewey. If you need a reason for a good cry, this is the place.

Kitties purring at the sight of someone walking toward their cages. Kitties rubbing against the bars to get attention. Kitties scrunched forlornly at the back of their cages, seeming to have given up on themselves as others already have.

None completely fit Missy's description. Maybe the SPCA.

"This is the only one we have that could possibly be her," an SPCA worker said, reaching into a cage where a gray tabby was being quarantined until her health could be checked.

Missy weighs about 14 pounds, I told her.

"Oh, then this can't be her," she said, and closed the cage door.

I kept looking. So many pairs of eyes looked back. Two grayish kittens mewed and climbed over each other as they pawed playfully between the bars.

"Aren't those two something?" the worker said. "We found them just as someone was dropping them in a pit."

The Humane Society of the United States estimates 6 to 8 million cats and dogs are put in shelters each year. Some are lost, like Missy. Others are given up or simply turned out. Only about 5 percent of cats are reclaimed by their old owners.

Williams' family wants to reclaim theirs.

"We are so afraid of what may become of her," Williams said.

If you find Missy, or think you have, e-mail me.