UPDATE 1/8/12: Chester has been found and safely returned. He's fine and at the vet for a check up. Check back with Patch for more details later.
UPDATE 1/5/12: Several Nanuet Residents that frequent the Nanuet Outdoor Recreation Center are searching for Chester and have put up a $500 reward for his safe return. Please call the COPS Barn phone number 845-304-9657 if you find him
---Original Story---
Lost pets always bring heartache. However, there’s more concern with the disappearance of this particular feline with him being a special therapy cat and with the National Weather Service projecting temperatures to drop to the low-teens late Tuesday night, up to 25 mph winds pushing the wind chill to around zero degrees and possible snow flurries Wednesday morning.
Chester is a therapy cat for the the Children of Promise Stable “COPS Barn” located at the Nanuet Outdoor Education Center, formerly St. Agatha.
He’s an 8-year-old light orange Tabby that has been missing since New Year’s Eve.
“He was taken from our stable and last seen off of Carriage Lane in Nanuet,” said Nancy Galdi, COPS Barn Program Director.
He is very friendly and will go to people. He will respond to his name. “He is friendly but has claws.” He is also neutered.
“He is and has been trained as a therapeutic cat for the children we service at the COPS Barn,” Galdi said. “He is not wearing a collar because he hunts and climbs he could hang himself on a tree or something else so we purposely never put a collar on him.”
She said that he eats wet and dry cat food. He also hunts outside mice and other rodents.
“Chester has never been off the property in eight years so he may not know his way around,” she said. “He always stayed on the property where the stable is located and on the sensory integration trail.”
He sleeps inside the barn in a heated tack room where his bed and food are located and knows to go back inside the room in the barn when it is dark out and cold. He does not use a liter box because he goes to the bathroom outside. He also sleeps on the wood shavings with the horses at night as well as inside their stalls, according to Galdi.
“I hope we find him because it would be so awful to have to tell our children that he is not with us any longer,” she added. “They all love him and cuddle him and come especially to the barn to see him as well as other caring individuals that jog or walk at the Nanuet Outdoor Education Center.”
