Lenore's Back!

Lenore, the black cat who bolted from her carrier into a marsh behind the Animal Control Department three weeks ago during a rabies vaccination clinic, was reunited with her owner Thursday night after an Alden Street woman captured her.

"I could not believe it - after three whole weeks. I was starting to lose hope," a joyful Alison Nicastro, Lenore's owner, said today. "I wasn't sure she was alive it had been so long."

Nicastro said Lenore had been hanging out by a park near Alden Street and had been fed for a few days by an Alden Street woman who had adopted two stray cats and who also has an older blind cat and two dogs. "That's where she found sanctuary. She was definitely being fed on Alden Street," Nicastro said.

Nicastro said she went to the home of the Alden Street woman, whom she declined to identify in case the woman didn't want her name in the newspaper, on Wednesday night because the woman told her Lenore usually came out in the evening. Nicastro said she then saw her missing cat for the first time since May 1.

"The night before last I went down...went into the park, and, all of a sudden I saw her out of the corner of my eye," Nicastro said, adding that Lenore was under a bush. "I coaxed her over with a string to play, and then I made a bad mistake."

Nicastro said she lunged at Lenore, worried this encounter was her only chance to bring Lenore home, and that Lenore "freaked out" and scratched her before bolting into woods by the town dump. "I was so upset I did that stupid thing by trying to grab her, but I was afraid she would leave," Nicastro said.

Nicastro said she returned to Alden Street Thursday night with a bag of treats and soon had a lot of cats around her. She saw Lenore again, but added that Lenore is shy and was unlikely to come back to her with a lot of cats around so Nicastro left and went home.

About 10 p.m. Thursday, Nicastro said she received a call from the Alden Street woman who reported that she had Lenore in a carrier and was bringing her to Nicastro's home on Riverside Drive. "I couldn't believe it," Nicastro said.

Nicastro said Lenore is thinner and that she has knotted fur on her chest and "cottony fur" under her coat, but otherwise seems to be in good health. "Whether she has ear mites or worms, that has yet to be determined," Nicastro said.

Nicastro said she planned to keep Lenore indoors for a while so she remembers where her home is. Nicastro got Lenore in October from the Connecticut Humane Society in Westport and said she is shy, which made it difficult for people to catch her. "I'm thinking she's pretty street-wise; that's why she's so shy," she said.

Nicastro said she received phone calls from people who thought they spotted Lenore, but most of the time they described a different cat. She said one man on French Street captured a cat he thought was Lenore and put it in his car, but it turned out to be a neighbor's cat.

Lenore never got her rabies shot on May 1 so Nicastro is bringing her to a rabies vaccination clinic in Westport next month. She said the Westport clinic is held indoors so there isn't a chance Lenore will escape.

Nicastro said she blames herself for Lenore's disappearance from Fairfield's rabies vaccination clinic because her cat carrier's door wasn't completely closed. Lenore pushed the door open at the Fairfield clinic, eluded Animal Control officers who tried to grab her, scaled an eight-foot-high fence and bolted into a marsh behind the Animal Control Department on One Rod Highway.

Nicastro said she's thrilled Lenore is home and managed to survive for three weeks on her wits and the kindness of strangers. "She's now getting totally spoiled. I ran out and got all these treats. She's lying on the couch," she said.

Nicastro declined Fairfield Patch's request to take a picture of Lenore today, saying she wants her to rest and get re-acclimated to her home.