I am not the original post. Originally posted by u/roydufek on r/Portland.

Posted on BoRU originally by u/green_pachi.

Mood spoiler blocker fact: Different cultures have different sayings about how many lives cats have. Spain, Brazil, Greece, or Germany say seven. In Turkey and some Arabic countries they have six. The US, Canada and the UK say nine. There are theories on why the idea that cats have many lives started, and it's mostly assumed it is because they survive things that humans couldn't.

Mood spoiler: the cat will be ok!

I messed up and sold my gf's cat by accident... (18 Dec 2014)

SO... My girlfriend and I are moving into a new apartment and while she was at work I helped her out by selling the two beds she had in her apartment because we were going to use my better beds that I had at my house. Little did I know when the cat is scared it hides inside the box spring. Until now there's been stuff under the bed preventing him from doing that but there was a hole big enough for him to crawl inside and hide in there. It is not a cat that ever goes outside and he didn't bolt out the door when I was helping the people from Craigslist purchasing the beds carry them out. She lived in Northridge Apartments in Rock Creek, and if you know those apartments there's two sets of doors he would have had to go through to get out (we would have noticed him leave). Well he's no longer in her apartment and we've been working with the buyer to search through his house/garage/perimeter where he stored the box spring once he got home. He strapped the box spring on top of the car for the transport so the cat could have jumped out on the transport as well at any moment.

As you can imagine my girlfriend is absolutely crushed. I know some think 'it's just a cat' but if you've ever owned an animal I ask that you understand how unbelievably devastating this is. "Camo" was her world and I was the one who took that away from her days before Christmas of all times of the year. This is a picture I took of him literally 3 days ago when we were messing around with a costume we bought the little guy for christmas. Thank you for any help you may be able to provide. We would want to know, dead or alive what state he's in and can only offer $100 for him from the money we got from the beds. Moving is and this time of year is proving to be financially challenging! Thank you so much for any information you may have...

He could be anywhere near Hillsboro Airport, or Rock Creek area: Highway 26 / Cornelius Pass Road

Thanks again! (AND, he is Microchipped as well)

http://i.imgur.com/RExriaz.jpg http://i.imgur.com/wYD7xdq.jpg

UPDATE 12/18/14 - 11:30p

So we've had an overwhelming response from so many people willing to help. It is unbelievably heart warming to see this thread hit top of Portland Reddit, all the suggestions (and amazing ones at that) from very bright people, and just an overall sense of community that I could have never possibly expected for somebody else's "problem". I truly want to thank all of you, whether joke- suggestion- or story for pitching in to this mess. This thread alone is the best Christmas present possible for the both of us (not including of course finding Camo).

That being said, we currently have a small animal trap in the Garage as of right now with a bowl of water at the end of it, and some clothing next to the bowl as suggested by a cat rescue in Hillsboro that was kind enough to lend us the trap for FREE. Next we have notified everything we can, posted lost cast posters around the areas he could be, and have registered the microchip service with his and updated the contact information. I've posted on CL, and now we are going to reach out to http://www.k9sardog.com as per suggestion by /u/little_treasure . Thank you little_treasure. It will at least confirm if he's in the garage or not. At first I was skeptical of such a service but his stats are ridiculous so I can't argue with that, and he's close.

The trap will be checked in the morning and every couple of hours through each day. I know a thought might be emptying out the garage to confirm he's not in there. Well that's a lot to ask a dude that just wanted a bed for $100. We're also trying to stay good with him since he's truly not obligated to do much more than he's already done for us, which is a lot over the past 24 hours.

Any way, again- I just want to express my sincere gratitude to each and every one of you who took the time out of your day to look out, share an anecdote, or drop some amazing suggestions. I guess I really should have expected nothing less than this from the Portland reddit, but thank you all for blowing us away. I never knew how much people can really be selfless to complete strangers in moment of despair.

I will of course keep the thread updated- thanks again Portland. :)

UPDATE 12/19/14 - 6:00p

Still no sign of Camo, nothing in the cage, and the Search and Rescue guy...well we decided after some further suggestion we were not going to hire him. We did receive however a reach out from a local news station for the story. CAN'T believe that! We are responding quickly with them and hope to get the story out in a better way. :) My girlfriend has put up more posters, talked to some neighbors and did more search. SHE even rented a thermal camera from Home Depot, found two bunnies, and 2 birds with it but unfortunately no cat. Had no idea that was even possible till again REDDIT. There is a long thread below here so whoever suggested FLIR, amazing... Thanks again for all your help, and I'm sure someone was kind enough to have a relationship with that news station and talked to someone there. Whoever you are, you're amazing. Merry Christmas!!!

Will keep the updates coming once a day near the evening. You all are saints! :)

UPDATE 12/20/14 10:30p

We spent the day moving but did get a tip from the front office of Northridge Apartments that a gentleman who lives there was out running this morning and saw a cat on Jacobson Rd. near the high school wandering around. It was darker out when he was running, and was not 100% positive on the markings but it interests us because there's really no residential properties off that area. My girlfriend is going to head over there in the morning to take a look around there more and call out for him. It is possible he's getting closer to home but now unfortunately she doesn't live there any more. We have talked to all surrounding apartments to look out for him as the apartments will only let the posters stay up for a few days understandably. We're offering $200 now that we didn't have to drop the pet deposit at the new apartments where we moved today...that was depressing for sure. We're definitely keeping good spirits about it though and have found a spot for his cat tree at the new place. The cage keeps empty at the box spring garage. At this point, we know our little Camo is on his adventure and having some fun out there. :) If you spot anything in that area don't hesitate to let us know. Email is my reddit handle u/gmail.com (trying to avoid spam). Thanks for keeping up with us, in your thoughts, and looking out! As the holidays approach- hold your fur children tight! You all are awesome, and hope this week is fantastic for you and your families. ~insert Christmas tree emoticon here~

UPDATE 12/21/14 10:30p

She looked around the high school for several hours today but nothing. I've already left town for Christmas, and she's leaving to meet me Tuesday just to stick around longer and see if Camo turns up. She's wrecked on the whole thing. Worried sick- and can't stop crying throughout the day. It's a big life change, and it's hard to be alone when you've had a pet to greet you for the last 5 years. It's rough but we're going to let life be life and hope for the best down the road. Gotta make the best of the Holidays and say hello to a new year, opening our minds to the possibility of a different life track without the little guy. Again, thanks to everyone who has looked out, helped us with suggestions, and told your stories of the luck that brought your pet back home to ease our minds. We'll update the page if we do find him in the future and always feel free to contact me with any questions or information about Camo. We will always offer the reward- This will be my last update for now as we gotta spend our time enjoying family. Happy holidays everyone!

UPDATE 12/28/14 4:00p

WE FOUND CAMO!!!

Short story: Caught him in a trap hours after setting it near the new location where the box spring traveled, meaning he did in fact take the car ride all the way to the new bed owner's house near Hillsboro airport. We were assured by a caller in the area that they did indeed see Camo based on the pictures available and we got a small animal trap setup near the sighting, came back an hour and half later and he was in there!

Longer story:

After another sighting was reported near Northridge Apartments yesterday (original home), we searched for a few hours finally spotting a cat outside an office building that looked very similar to Camo, but wasn't him. There was food, water, and another indoor cat in the window of the office. We had three sightings reported on different days at that same corner or near of a cat that looked like Camo, we realized that it was most likely that cat both times so we decided to look more at the Evergreen & Sewell near the Hillsboro Airport (new home of the bed). After distributing some fliers, Hayley went back set trap with sardines in oil and familiar scented clothing, then left. About an hour and half later she came back with her friend Kelly to do some more searching. Camo was in the trap! Although scared and hissy, they got him in the car and headed back to familiar territory: his old home. After further inspection Camo had a cut lip, several of his nails were broken / paws were bleeding, one of his eyes was squinty, he of course was a mess, and he was very thin (lost about 2 pounds). He spent the night getting up several times eating and drinking and was taken to the vet this morning. The vet gave him an antibiotic shot, a good inspection, and he was off back to home where we think we pulled a tick off and are treating him for fleas. Hayley gave him a bath and he's been cleaning himself vigorously since. All is good, and we expect the news to be covering this pretty extensively so that's why we've waited to release this until we had some time to discuss the plan.

We can't ever repay or say thank you enough to all the people that spent their cherished holiday time, and resources to help us bring Camo home. It was quite emotional last night, we're in shock of this whole experience, and have been holding him tight! It's been quite the ride and we couldn't possibly formulate the words to describe how grateful we are for all the people who have reached out to us for suggestions, help, stories, comfort, and information. It's the best feeling in the world to know friends and strangers a like has had our back in time of need, and to have him back safe and recovering. We can't even imagine what's he's been through in a week and half running wild near the country side esoecially in this weather. Today is a great day!

Thanks again, Roy & Hayley

http://imgur.com/6KQHIkC http://imgur.com/J0BJuli http://imgur.com/cRVEbTv http://imgur.com/IYdUu4P