Joey the Cat got the wanderlust

SALISBURY — Some time on Thursday, July 2, Joey the Cat, age 15, left his comfortable (if, perhaps, noisy) billet at the Vail camp on Mount Riga.

Joey the Cat’s owner is Emily Vail, who is half of the Vail and Vail law office in Salisbury. (Charlie Vail is the other half.)

Emily Vail was not particularly concerned at first. She said that Joey the Cat has disappeared twice before, for a week each time.

But the holiday weekend came and went with no sign of Joey the Cat.

Vail hiked around Mount Riga, calling his name.

If Joey the Cat followed his past form, he would be traveling by road. Joey the Cat, though unafraid of dogs, does not like bushwhacking.

One time Joey the Cat turned up at a camp a half mile down the dirt road.

The other time a friend spotted Joey the Cat hanging around the watering trough on the Mount Riga Road, a considerably longer distance.

So Vail hiked and Vail called his name.

And after a couple of weeks of this, Vail was resigned to the idea that Joey the Cat was gone forever.

She left for a trip to Greece, in somber mood.

And on July 29, she received a message.

Joey the Cat was alive and well and in Greenwich Village.

Vail said on Sunday, Aug. 23, that she figured Joey the Cat, irritated by the holiday hubbub, took off and made his way, somehow, to Boston Corner, which is in the town of North East, N.Y. (Millerton is a village in the town of North East. Boston Corner  is the New York State side of Mount Riga.)

Down in Boston Corner, he made friends with a construction crew working on a house renovation.

The crew reported to the homeowner, Randy Kaufman, that Joey the Cat was a new feature of the house.

Kaufman came to look at the progress on the house, met Joey the Cat, and decided to take him back to New York. And then he took Joey the Cat to a veterinarian in Greenwich Village.

In the modern world, a lost cat is not identified by a handy little metal tag attached to a collar.

A lost cat now has a microchip stuck in it. A modern vet has the gizmo to retrieve the information on the chip.

The vet, having established Joey the Cat’s identity, notified the chip company, who sent a text message to Emily Vail, who was in Greece.

Kaufman also left a voice message on Vail’s cell phone, which she could not immediately listen to, for reasons connected with being in Greece.

But the good news had been delivered.

A cousin of Vail’s, who lives in New Jersey, fetched Joey the Cat and returned him to Salisbury, where he was eventually reunited with his owner.

“I don’t know how he made it,” said Vail on Mount Riga on Sunday, as Joey the Cat stretched, clawed the doormat and then settled down on the front step of a cabin.

“I’m amazed,” continued Vail. “I thought he was gone. Four weeks is a long time, especially up here.

“Think of all the animals. An owl could do him in.”

Joey the Cat lost three pounds on his journey and did not have his thyroid medication, for obvious reasons.

But he seemed quite content as he accepted a treat from Vail, and then returned to the important business of taking a nap.

The question remains:

Did Joey the Cat wander through the woods, on seldom-used dirt roads or overgrown trails, to fetch up in Boston Corner?

Or did he go by road — a considerably longer trip, with traffic.

Joey the Cat was asked this question. He rolled over on his back and blinked in the morning sunlight. He purred, as if to say, “What’s it to you?”