PETALUMA, Calif. — Do you believe in fate when it comes to love? How about when it comes to cats?
This love tale (tail?) has an interesting twist.
Back in 2014, single mom Cathleen Cavin of Petaluma took her daughter to a local animal shelter to adopt a new kitten. They picked out a cute orange kittten and named it Ozzy. But despite loving the cat, Cathleen and her daughter always felt a twinge of guilt about separating Ozzy from his furry sibling.
That inspired Cathleen to promise that one day, she’d find Ozzy’s long-lost brother.
“I felt, horrible – who makes a promise like that? Needles in a haystack,” Cavin recalled.
The initial search proved fruitless and Cathleen and her daughter figured Ozzy wouldn’t ever get to reunite with his litter mate.
Meantime, Cathleen was ready to get back into the dating game. She met a nice guy named Brian Herrera online, and set up a date. The first time she went over to his house, however, she got quite the surprise.
“She notices a cat scurry by,” recalled Herrera. “And she says ‘that’s my cat!’ And I say, ‘No way, that’s MY cat, what are you talking about? Thinking she’s this crazy cat lady. And she just kept going, ‘That’s my cat!’ So I’m thinking, OK, red flags. What’s going on?”
What was going on was Brian was the owner of Ozzy’s long-lost brother. And, Cathleen was not crazy.
The couple checked into shelter records and found that Ozzy and Brian’s cat Butter were indeed the pair separated back in 2014. Since the cat family reunion, Cathleen and Brian have moved in together, and the friendly felines get along great.
“My first thought was I hope the cats get along together,” said Kathy Sousa, of the Petaluma Animal Services Foundation from where the cats were adopted. “They’ve been separated for three years. But, they do, so that’s good.”
Cathleen is now a firm believer in fate.
“WIth so much in common, it’s just bizarre,” she said, noting that the couple have several other strange parallels in their lives. “And then to have our cats be brothers? It’s total destiny. Yeah, it’s fate.”
