Search Continues For Missing Cat: 'I Still Call Out His Name'

NORTH FORK, NY — The search continues for a missing black cat, Buddy, in Mattuck.

Buddy, his owner said, went missing more than a week ago and was out alone during the recent snowstorm.

"There are still no signs of Buddy," said Patricia Wright, who has been frantic with worry about her cat. She plans to post new signs, she said, as the ones that she'd put up were ruined in the snow.

Wright said she hopes Buddy may be found in someone's garage or on their property. "Faith — I just hold onto it tight," she said.

The bond between Wright and Buddy runs deep, she said. "He truly made me smile every single day and his absence in the house doesn't go unnoticed, day to day. He often came in on these cold days and snuggled with me on the couch. I loved that."

Wright finds herself looking, searching, scanning the streets everywhere she drives — hoping. "I sit and stare out my back door looking at the farmland behind us wishing I’d see a flash of black or him, just standing at my back door. I still call out his name outside in total hope that he can hear me."

According to a Neighbor Post on Patch by Patricia Wright, Buddy is a male; he went missing from Wavecrest Lane at the crossroad of Reeve Road in the Saltaire Estates community in Mattituck on Jan. 25. Buddy, she said, "never misses a meal and was not fond of the cold. We are desperately looking for him with this bitter cold and snow coming."

Buddy was last seen wearing a camouflage collar with an ID tag and is microchipped. He has a white patch under his neck and faint white markings on one side. Anyone with any information or sightings is asked to call 631-278-7253.

Many neighbors in the Saltaire neighborhood, some of whom have never even met Buddy have reached out over the past week "with genuine concern...and are still actively looking out for him for us. So very sweet and thoughtful. We are fairly new in this neighborhood and I’m realizing we have some really great people living here," Wright said. "I look forward to meeting with them in better weather and circumstances."

Neighbors who saw the message about Buddy being missing even called from Florida. Buddy, she said, often hangs out in their yard, chasing mice and moles and staring intently at birds. "He entertains them," she laughed. "Buddy is well-known here."

Another woman and her son, who Wright doesn't even know, came to help search door-to-door for hours. "People are so genuinely good," she said.

Wright has asked those who live nearby to please check sheds and garages, and said that there is a reward for anyone that finds him.

Buddy was originally from a feral colony; Wright got him as a kitten and has had him for four years. For the first two years, he was an indoor cat but as time passed, "he got more and more antsy to get outside."

Wright, who brought Buddy to Florida in recent years, where she cared for her mother before she passed away, said her four-legged friend kept getting out the door, but stayed mainly in the yard.

They moved back to Mattituck in August and again, Buddy kept making his great escape, but stayed mostly outside near the house.

Wright, a nurse in Southampton, worked an extra shift on day Buddy went missing and realized soon after that Buddy hadn't come home that night.

"And with this cold, it's really upsetting," she said. "He's just such a sweetheart. He comes when you call him; he's like a little dog."

Wright said she and her husband have been out searching, clanking his food bowls and calling his name; their property is sited adjacent to farmland and she is afraid Buddy may have wandered too far.

"He's never missed a meal and since it's been getting so cold, he'd go out for five minutes and then be back at the door," she said. "This time, he stayed out and didn't come to the door. I don't understand what happened."

In addition to her husband and son, Buddy is also greatly missed by their other cat Annabelle and their chocolate Lab Riley, Wright said.

She desperately misses her cat, Wright said. "I just want him to come home," she said. "I would do anything to get him back. I am just trying to keep the faith."