Lost Cat Reunited With Hillsborough Family After 6 Months

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — Mother Nature didn't make it easy for Hercules with 20 inches of snow falling, bitter temperatures and then sweltering heatwaves but the Hillsborough family's Bengal cat lived up to his name and survived in the wild for the past six months.

Hercules had gone missing the day before a major Nor'easter slammed the Hillsborough area on Jan. 30.

"He has been an indoor/outdoor cat for five of his eight years of life. But this was the first time ever he went missing," said Dana Calvo, who lives off Balmoral Court. "He had always been a culdesac cat, he doesn't venture far."

Despite being outdoors, Calvo said Hercules would always return home every day and when he didn't she and her family knew something was wrong immediately.

"We were frantically trying to find him that Saturday. We wanted to find him before the storm hit," said Calvo.

The next day the township was hit with more than 20 inches of snow.

Calvo kept searching for Hercules for months with no luck. She would see posts on Facebook community groups of other Bengal cats and would go to check them out but only left heartbroken that they weren't her Hercules.

"I would get reports about a Bengal cat and I would entertain the reports and go. They were beautiful cats but not mine. As of last month, I was done with the heartstrings, I thought he was gone," said Calvo.

Then a neighbor posted a photo on the Hillsborough Facebook community group asking if anyone was missing a cat that appeared at their home in the Huntington Park area, which is about 1.5 miles away from her home.

Calvo knew immediately it was her Hercules.

Calvo went to the neighbor's home to get Hercules and as soon as she walked inside she said Hercules let out a bellow.

"I was so excited I was shaking. I couldn't even open the can of tuna," said Calvo.

Hercules, who turned 8 this past March, is usually a good 15 pounds. And while Hercules was maintaining some weight he did lose a good 2 to 3 pounds.

"He was not injured and still had a healthy weight. When I brought him home he slept 23 hours straight. You could just feel the exhaustion coming out of him," said Calvo.

Hercules is more Calvo's daughter Hazel's cat and the pair were ecstatic to be reunited.

"He is now sunbathing on our back porch," said Calvo.

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