Cat on way home to Wisconsin after adventure in northern B.C.

FORT NELSON, B.C. — A ten-year-old cat is on his way home after quite the adventure in northern B.C. over the past five months.

Nicole Klumb says her cat Paulie has been there for every step of her life, such as moving across the country, getting married, and “tolerating a growing and rambunctious toddler.”

Paulie’s owner, Klumb, and her family were moving to Wisconsin from Alaska when they made an overnight stop in Toad River in June.

“I thought I was prepared for the little menace… But he bested me,” Klumb wrote.

Klumb says the family, including two adults, a toddler, two dogs, Paulie and a parakeet, got settled in for the night.

While having a warm toddler glued to her side, Klumb opened the window to their camper, which led to Paulie’s escape.

“What I didn’t know is that he could use that nose to push the screen open and jump out,” Klumb wrote.

The next morning, everyone got up and started getting ready to hit the road again, which included feeding Paulie. 

“It was when he wasn’t there being a giant pest that I realized he was missing,” Klumb wrote. 

“My husband and I tore the camper apart, called out for Paulie, and I ran around shaking a treat bag in hopes he would just come running.”

Unfortunately, he didn’t, and the family didn’t have a lot of time to wait for him to come out. Luckily, Paulie had a collar with his name and Klumb’s phone number on it.

After asking around the Toad River Lodge, they hit the road, and in Fort Nelson, they took to social media to ask people to keep an eye out for Paulie.

The cat was eventually located in Toad River months later by Sheriden Hebdon, and the cat’s trip home has been organized.

“Toad River is a tight-knit small rural community, and they are some of the most kind people,” Klumb wrote.

She says the people who found Paulie are ensuring he is well taken care of until he gets picked up for the first leg of his trip home this weekend.

“How a 10-year-old, 10-pound, little beggar like Paulie has survived these last five months, I truly wish he could tell me,” Klumb wrote. 

“I’m sure he has genuinely had the best and worst camping adventure in the wilderness of beautiful British Columbia.”

David Woodford, a Fort St. John resident, offered to pick Paulie up in Toad River and take him for a vet visit before driving him to Fort St. John, where Paulie will be flying to Vancouver.

Klumb says a family friend will fly with Paulie from Vancouver to Seattle, where she will fly to meet him and finally take him home to Wisconsin.

“We have missed him a great deal,” Klumb wrote. “He is everyone’s shadow, the door greeter, lap warmer and certified biscuit maker.”