By Sara Ruberg
When a cat dashed into the woods of Yellowstone National Park during a camping trip in June, his California owners, Benny and Susanne Anguiano, thought they’d never see him again.
The couple searched for five days through the woods near their campground at Fishing Bridge RV Park but never found their 2-year-old male siamese cat, Rayne Beau, pronounced “rainbow.” Susanne Anguiano said that Rayne Beau’s sister, Starr, started to meow through the screen door of the trailer. Eventually, when the couple made the tough decision to drive home to Salinas, California, Starr, who had never been away from her brother, meowed all the way back.
“Leaving him was unthinkable,” Susanne Anguiano said. “I felt like I was abandoning him.”
But almost two months later, Rayne Beau was found wandering the streets of Roseville, California, three hours north of where the Anguianos live and more than 800 miles away from Yellowstone National Park, as first reported by the news station KSBW.
When a worker from a local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals notified the couple that rescuers had identified Rayne Beau from his microchip, Benny Anguiano said they were shocked that the cat had made it back to California.
The couple met Rayne Beau and his sister when they were 11 weeks old and decided to foster and then adopt them. Rayne Beau, who at first seemed timid compared with his playful sister, quickly adjusted to his new home and developed an adventurous streak. Susanne Anguiano described him as being like a “dog cat” who played fetch and came to her when she called his name.
She said he was also clever. One night he climbed over the fence in their backyard, but he returned home the following morning.
But this time was different. Susanne Anguiano said that when Rayne Beau dashed out of the truck, the couple quickly lost sight of him in the dense forest. They waited for him to come back, but he never did.
“He didn’t realize that it wasn’t just like his backyard,” she said. “This is like the biggest backyard in the United States.”
During their search, Benny Anguiano said a campsite worker told him that there had been grizzly bears and coyotes spotted around the area, and that their cat was likely to have been eaten by one of the forest’s predators. After hearing this, Benny Anguiano convinced his wife that it was time to leave.
The couple left the park days later without their cat, but Susanne Anguiano kept hoping Rayne Beau was safe. As they were driving, she said that a double rainbow greeted them as they entered Nevada.
“That gave me hope that our Rayne Beau would be ok,” she said in a text message.
The couple believe at some point that their cat had hitched a ride or was picked up by a driver heading toward California for part of his journey, but they do not know for sure. They’re hoping that someone who might recognize their cat could help explain how he made it back.
“The fact that he was in California and just three hours north of us — I think that proves more that Rayne Beau was the one trying to get towards his home,” Susanne Anguiano said.
While not common, it’s not the first time a pet has inexplicably traveled hundreds of miles to return home. The distance from their campsite in Yellowstone National Park to Roseville, California, where Rayne Beau was found, is more than 800 miles, and a journey would have taken him through four states in mountainous and desertlike conditions.
When the couple reunited with him, they said Rayne Beau had lost 40% of his body weight. He was restless in his carrier, but once they released him in the car he calmed down.
“He just looked at me, and then he put his head down and just fell fast asleep,” Susanne Anguiano said. “He was so exhausted.”
The couple said Rayne Beau has been back home since early August and was doing well. Susanne Anguiano is hesitant to travel with her cats again, but if she does, they won’t be so far away from home.
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