SC folks never stopped looking for missing Florida cat. Tears flowed at the reunion

Sometimes you have to step back from a story to find its message, its answer, if you will.

Is it A? A nine-lives kind of cat from Florida which, after four months of being on the lam in South Carolina, not only survived the ordeal but was reunited with his owner on Sunday.

Or B perhaps? A community of caring folks who have kept up a steady lookout for the creature, named Lux, since his disappearance in mid-September at, of all places, a Lizard’s Thicket restaurant in Blythewood.

Then there’s C. A humankind combination of hope, persistence and simply not giving up.

You choose.

First, though, the story.

“I always had that little bit of hope in my heart,” said Chris Miller, Lux’s owner.

Miller and her husband, Pat, evacuated from their home in Jacksonville, Fla., to Charlotte, N.C., prior to Hurricane Irma’s September arrival in the Sunshine State as a Category Four storm. Several days later, the couple was returning home with the family pets, including two dogs and Lux. In Blythewood, the Millers pulled off I-77 and stopped at a nearby Lizard’s Thicket restaurant for lunch.

The car’s sun roof was cracked open and, for whatever reason, Lux opted for some fresh air. After lunch, the Millers got back on the highway. An hour down the road, they realized Lux was no longer with them. They made their way back to Blythewood, where they spent a day and a night looking for Lux.

While Chris Miller was canvasing the nearby Cobblestone Park neighborhood, she ran into resident Mark Cruise, who heard her story and generated another sort of storm – a search-and-rescue operation on social media.

Lux, however, remained missing. The Millers had to return to Florida, and the community of Blythewood, including a group of folks who care for stray cats, kept looking.

“The community of Blythewood was just fabulous,” Mrs. Miller said. “They were constantly on the lookout for Lux.”

People scoured neighborhoods. Fliers were posted. Social media hummed. Trail cams were set up in several different locations, for weeks at a time, and then analyzed for the presence of a black cat with white markings on his chest. At least one stray black cat was sighted and trapped. Chris Miller returned to Blythewood in hopes that it was Lux, but it was not.

The search continued.

And this past week, one of the many local folks looking for Lux spotted a black cat at the edge of the woods near Lizard’s Thicket.

“We set a trap for him,” said Caroline Rowland.

And it worked.

A black cat was caught and Rowland took it home to her house, near Blythewood.

“He was so scared. I Facetimed Chris, but the cat was still scared and hunched up and Chris just couldn’t be sure it was Lux. But then the cat calmed down and we Facetimed again. I was able to put the camera on the cat’s chest, where the white markings are.”

“The first time we facetimed, I was 50 percent sure it was Lux,” said Miller, “but the second time, when I saw the markings, I was 99 percent sure.”

Miller arrived at Rowland’s home on Sunday morning. The cat was being kept in a large, quiet closet in an upstairs bedroom.

“I didn’t sleep a wink last night,” Miller said, climbing the stairs.

Slowly, she pushed the closet door open and knelt down in front of the cat who was nestled on a corner shelf.

“Yeah,” she said, “It’s him. It’s Lux.”

The cat began to purr. He rolled over on his side, offering his belly for a rub.

“Yeah, I know,” Miller crooned. “It’s been a long time. Four months. Such a long, long time.”

And such a story.

By lunchtime on Sunday, Lux was cossetted in a cat carrier in the back of Millers’ blue Subaru, which was parked at the Blythewood Lizard’s Thicket where, in a small dining room, many of the folks involved in looking and finally finding Lux had gathered to celebrate.

“It restores your faith in humanity,” Miller said. “I mean, you think people would just say, Aw, it’s just a cat, but that’s not what happened.”

Miller looked around the dining room at those gathered there.

“Thank you so much,” she said. “Thank you so much.”

Vivian Miller, a waitress at the restaurant, was serving the group. She’d been working at the restaurant when Lux got loose four months ago.

“I got tears in my eyes,” she said. “I been praying for this cat for months. The day he got lost, I ran around the parking lot telling people to call me if they saw him.”

Other Lux lookers gathered at the table chimed in.

“There was this whole sense of community,” said Kelly Cruise. “Especially after the hurricane, with people all over the place, I just think everyone wrapped around the story of Lux.”

“Never give up,” said Cam Chappell.

“You’ve got to keep the faith,” said Rob Schisler.

And you’ve got to step back from the story of Lux to find its message, its answer, if you will.

That would be all of the above.

.

This story was originally published January 7, 2018 at 4:02 PM.