Tri-County Humane Society was contacted by the Minnesota Federated Humane Societies in late March, asking us if we would have space for a large number of cats. They were working on a case in Crosby, Minnesota. We had an abnormally low numbers of cats in our shelter at that time, so we agreed to help.
On April 11, the Crosby Police Department with the assistance of the Minnesota Federated Humane Societies began removing the cats from the Crosby home. They found 102 cats, 94 of which were brought to Tri-County Humane Society at 5:30 p.m. About a dozen of our dedicated staff stayed until 11 p.m. doing their intakes.
Unlikely reunions
During our intakes, we scanned them for microchips, and one of the cats had one! We contacted the owners, and they drove immediately from Crosby to be reunited with their cat. It had been missing for seven years.
On April 12, the Crosby Police Department issued a news release that said, “Anyone missing cats in the area is encouraged to contact the Tri-County Humane society.” We decided to treat all of the cats as strays to give people a chance to see if their lost cat was among the group.
On April 13, a couple from Sartell reached out to us and said they thought one of the cats on our website looked a lot like their lost cat. Their cat, a 10-year-old neutered feline named Cougar, had unique markings, and there was a neutered cat whom we had guessed to be 10 years old with identical markings on our website. We invited them to come in and take a look. It was their cat, who had been missing for six months to the day. By chance, KARE 11 was at our shelter interviewing us about the Crosby cats when the Sartell couple showed up.
A compelling story
We also received visits from WCCO, KSTP, and Fox 9, we were aired on the MPR morning show, WJON, KNSI, and seven stations in the Brainerd Lakes area, and we were featured in the Star Tribune, St. Cloud Times, St. Cloud Live, the Newsleader, even a paper in New York picked up the story! Thanks to the attention from media and our devout social media followers, over the course of the five days we received over 200 emails from people hoping we had their lost cat. Sadly, we did not find any other matches.
We have a number of Crosby cats in foster care or being treated in-house who are not ready to be released yet, but we have successfully adopted out 30 Crosby cats to date, and we have many ready and waiting for adoption. Our amazing staff and volunteers have gone above and beyond to make sure these cats receive the love and care that they need. In our 50 years, this is by far the largest group of animals we have taken in at one time, and we couldn't have done it without the help of our amazing community.
We are touched by the outpouring of support for these cats. There are too many donors—literally hundreds — to list them all, but we want everyone to know we are so grateful.
We especially want to thank the donor (who wishes to be anonymous) behind our 94-Hour Crosby Cat $5,000 Challenge, Pantown Brewery for donating $1 for every beer sold during that challenge, Boysen Animal Hospital staff for volunteering to do exams and other care, medical partners IDEXX and Dechra, businesses who hosted supply drives, and everyone who donated.
Image - (CLOCKWISE, FROM LEFT): TCHS Veterinary Technician Christina Hegstad, CVT, does an intake on a Crosby cat on April 11; a Sartell family is reunited with their Crosby cat; Crosby cats await processing after arriving at Tri-County Humane Society.
