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Year passes, owners still search for Sammi
Photo
Judy Levy with Sammy the cat will have been missing for exactly one year this coming Wednesday.
LIBERTY
It would have been hard to get through the past year without becoming at least somewhat aware of the plight of Sammi the cat.
His face stares down at us from the billboard at Belmont Avenue and Gypsy Lane. It gazes up from the newspaper as we drink our morning coffee. And in our living rooms, we see it on our TVs.
We may not know the whole story, but at least this much is clear: Sammi is missing.
There have been some sightings, but none has panned out. A website, www.findsammy.com, gives an accurate description. Then, if you really believe you’ve seen him, call or text the number in the ad: 330-716-5077. Get a picture of him if you can, and text that.
If you find Sammi, you can collect a $3,000 reward.
For Sammi’s owners Judy and Brad Levy, that will be money well-spent to have their family back together.
The Liberty Township couple, who live on Ravine Drive, have felt as lost this year as Sammi himself. They faced a hard day this week — the anniversary of his disappearance was Wednesday.
“It’s been very difficult for my husband and I to live through this, and anyone who loves a pet knows how difficult,” said Judy at her home Monday.
Just outside the front door was the concrete bench Sammi was lying beside on the day Judy and her husband left for Canada last year to help her mother with her aunt’s estate issues.
That was Oct. 25. Sammi had been on medication, and they made sure he was acting normally before they left.
Their cats, six at the time, now four, are indoor-outdoor, she said. They have acreage, and the cats do not stray far from the house.
Three people were helping them look after the cats while they were in Canada. They were returning Oct. 29, and only three hours away from home, when the accident happened.
Sammi slipped out of the house, and one of his caretakers wanted him back inside.
She chased him, and he started to run away. She pursued him to Ohio Trail, which borders their property.
Suddenly, a van barreled by.
“After that, he’s running like mad,” said Judy.
“We don’t know if he came back to the property, or if he took off beyond Ohio Trail,” she continued. “We were out on foot and in the car looking for him, and then we started with the reward, putting fliers in people’s mailboxes. We covered the Liberty area all the way from Tibbetts Wick to Belmont, covering Gypsy Lane.
“We were getting calls and responding to each call,” she added. “I had no idea how many black and white cats are out there.”
She said the reward started out at $500, but they got calls from people who said they saw a cat days ago or that it went into someone else’s property, and there was no chance to follow up.
“So we upped the reward to engage the community,” she said.
The Levys have asked police, the township road department, shelters, landscapers, and UPS to be on the watch for Sammi. She said a UPS driver reported what she believes is a credible sighting Friday on Trumbull Avenue.
“We were loaded up with food, and if someone called, we’d take food over,” she said.
Sammi, who’s 8, was born a feral kitten on their property, she explained. At one point, he’d had another home, but his owner called after a few months to say that he was in the wall studs and not eating, probably because he feared their dog. She asked if the Levys would take him back.
Judy met her and Sammi at Liberty Plaza. They rolled down their windows. As soon as he heard her voice, she said, he leaped into her car. He spent the next few days clinging to her and Brad.
Her biggest fear, she said, is that someone has Sammi, and that no amount of money will persuade him or her to give the cat back.
He’s special, she said, and smart.
She said she’s heard people say Sammi is only a cat. She said she doesn’t want another cat to replace him. She also said she donates money to causes.
“He’s family — our family is incomplete right now,” she said.