ICYMI: Port Jefferson Station Woman Seeks Cat After Home Fire

PORT JEFFERSON STATION, NY — A Port Jefferson Station woman is looking for her lost cat after a house fire ravaged her home and killed her six other cats earlier this month.

Oliver, a brown and white cat, was last seen on Jan. 5, the day a blaze tore through Rachel Golden's home at 81 Norstrand Avenue. All of the cats she lost were rescues she had since they were kittens.

"They were my children and best friends and they were there for me through difficult times in my life when no one else was," Golden told Patch.

Oliver was the first cat Golden adopted when she was away at college at New Paltz. He was living in a patch of bushes on the campus. The bushes were about to be torn up for construction. Golden knew she had to save Oliver then. However, she's scared that she can't save him now, after the fire.

The fire broke out at around 10:30 a.m., police said. Oliver was rescued by firemen, who laid him down to give him an oxygen mask. However, he then ran away. Golden believes she could have helped him had she gotten home a few minutes earlier.

"It would mean everything if I could have him back alive and give him a hug and kiss and tell him that I love him," Golden said. "Even if he is found not alive, I want him to be cremated so I can always have him with me and he can be memorialized properly instead of decaying in someone's yard. He deserves so much better than that."

Golden was not home when the fire started.

"If I were, I would probably be dead or disfigured because I would have done everything and anything to save my cats," she said.

There are three cats that look like Oliver in the neighborhood, Golden said. Oliver has white front legs, no collar and no markings on his nose. One of the lookalikes has sores and markings on his front legs, one has a spot on his nose, and the other has a collar.

Golden implored her neighbors to look under their decks, as well as in their bushes and sheds.