This kitten has quite a story.
Tsar the cat disappeared from his owner's presence during the annual family photo shoot on Governors Island in October, and miraculously survived several weeks in the wild in winter temperatures.
“This is pretty amazing,” Tristan Mariner, the overnight caretaker on Governors Island, told the Post. “He clearly had good intuition. He was in an area with a heated bathroom cart, so we think he was living under it, and that's where we found him. .”
Mariner said the 15-pound cat appeared well fed and healthy when she was rescued on Dec. 8, and was probably hunting mice and sifting through the island's various compost bins to survive. He added that he had done so.
“He must have been eating well somehow,” Marriner said. “But when I saw him, he did seem relieved to have eaten a handful of sardines.”
Tsar's story began on October 27, when he and his owner attended the annual Pumpkin Point photo festival on an island just a few hundred meters from Manhattan and Brooklyn. There are no full-time residents on this island.
The finicky feline disappeared under a bale of hay, and despite people spending hours searching the area, the cat was nowhere to be found, Marriner told the Post. .
“We took our annual family photo with the pumpkins, and the Tsar (who has visited the island many times and enjoys walking around) decided to sit under the hay wagon. “The tsar's family wrote in a post on an online Lost and Found Pets forum. “I called him a few hours later but he didn't come. I waited until the last ferry (6pm).”
A week after the emperor's escape, Mariner found the pet on the southern half of the island. However, attempts to lure the cat with tuna and drag it out failed.
Over the next few weeks, other staff members also spotted the animal, but no one was able to secure him.
Mariner told the Post that a last-ditch effort to use a “humane” SPCA trap finally paid off. Tsar appeared in the trap for the first time on December 8th, 42 days after leaving his owner at Pumpkin Point.
“I wanted to get this cat out of here,” Marriner admitted. “Of course different people have different interests. I'm a gardener and I love birds, but cats aren't good for birds. And I have a poor cat who's been out in the cold, so of course I can't bring her home.” I want to go home.”
Marriner, who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said the timing of the escape was critical to finding the tsar. During the winter, when activity on the island is slow, more time can be devoted to rescue operations.
“Coupled with the security team seeing him on CCTV and the horticulture team and gardeners seeing him in their area, it narrowed down the score to some extent for where I was looking, and eventually… [where I] set a trap [down]'' Mariner said.
Grounds managers said Tsar was found just a four-minute walk from the Pumpkin Point photo shoot and called the cat's rescue a “huge relief.”
“It was really exciting,” Marriner said. “It worked out really well. … I called my boss right away and called my family and told them about it. It was a huge relief for everyone and we were all really happy.”
Later that night, Marriner said he received a call from the Tsar's owner's young son.
“He was like, 'Thank you so much.' It's great for them to have him home for the holidays and stuff like that,” Marriner said.
