{"id":31420,"date":"2023-09-27T22:41:10","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T04:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/missing-kansas-cat-found-near-durango-headed-home-after-3-years\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:40:22","slug":"missing-kansas-cat-found-near-durango-headed-home-after-3-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/missing-kansas-cat-found-near-durango-headed-home-after-3-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing Kansas cat found near Durango headed home after 3 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"La
La Plata County Humane Society volunteer Cathy Roberts with Sarin, the cat found Aug. 29 that went missing in Topeka, Kansas three years ago. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When Jeni Owens\u2019 cat, Sarin, went missing from her home in Topeka, Kansas, three years ago, her kids shed \u201ca lot of tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMom, why can\u2019t we find her,\u201d Owens\u2019 daughter, then 6, bemoaned.<\/p>\n

They never did find Sarin, and eventually replaced her with another cat, Amelia.<\/p>\n

So it was much to the family\u2019s surprise when Owens got a call earlier this month that Sarin had been found and was in good health. And it was an even bigger surprise to learn that the feline was discovered near Kline, a rural community west of Durango, some 793 miles from Topeka.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been to Colorado \u2013 ever \u2013 so I don\u2019t know how she got there,\u201d Owens said.<\/p>\n

The family will likely never know the details of their pet\u2019s unlikely journey, but Owens and her kids are looking forward to their reunion with Sarin Thursday. The cat will be flown, free of charge, to Topeka thanks to American Airlines and the work of La Plata County Humane Society volunteer Cathy Roberts.<\/p>\n

\"Sarin
Sarin went missing from the home of Jeni Owens in Topeka, Kansas in October 2020. \u201cI assumed that either a fox got her or somebody else picked her up,\u201d Owens said. The cat will be returned home on Thursday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sarin was the Owens family\u2019s first pet and lived with them for about a year and a half before she disappeared. Although she lived indoors, Sarin was known to escape from time to time. Owens said Sarin always returned home \u2013 until she didn\u2019t one day in October 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cI assumed that either a fox got her or somebody else picked her up,\u201d Owens said.<\/p>\n

Nearly three years passed before the cat was found on County Road 136 and brought into the LPCHS on Aug. 29 as a stray. The volunteers there scanned her for a microchip, and were able to contact Owens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why you microchip your pets,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cNot only do you microchip them, but you keep the information up to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cWe're
\u201cWe're all ready for her to come home,\u201d Jeni Owens said of Sarin, her cat that went missing from her home in Topeka, Kansas three years ago. Sarin was found in western La Plata County on Aug. 29. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Owens was in disbelief when Roberts called to tell her that LPCHS had Sarin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat cat?\u201d Owens asked.<\/p>\n

Once the initial shock wore off, Owens realized she faced another problem: Topeka is a 13-hour drive from Durango. She would need to take time off work and get a hotel room if she wanted to come pick up Sarin.<\/p>\n

Roberts jumped into action. She contacted Durango-La Plata County Airport Director Tony Vicari, who reached out to United and American Airlines. American Airlines agreed to fly Sarin back to Kansas.<\/p>\n

Owens and her daughter, now age 9, are ecstatic to be reunited with Sarin at Kansas City International Airport Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all ready for her to come home,\u201d Owens said.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"After
After three years away, Sarin will catch a ride back to Kansas on Thursday, courtesy of American Airlines. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sarin
Sarin has been missing from its owner in Kansas for the past three years and was found recently near Kline, west of Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018We just assumed that she was gone for good\u2019 owner said <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[950,28,475],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-colorado"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81437,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31420\/revisions\/81437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31420"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}