A cat who disappeared during a California mudslide has returned to its family after 475 days. When the Strogoff family hurriedly fled impending mudslides in Montecito, California, in January 2018, they left their home quickly.
In all the rush, they couldn’t round up their two cats, Diamond and Huguette, Noelle Strogoff told KEYT.
“I had no idea that what happened was going to happen and assumed they would be fine. When we got back, we couldn’t find them,” stated Noelle Strogoff, who went on to add that her 10-year-old son Alexander and 7-year-old twins Benjamin and Violet were particularly fond of Diamond.
The family’s home was merely one of hundreds destroyed by the mudslide on January 9 when heavy rains washed over hillsides stripped bare by earlier wildfires. A total of twenty-three people were killed. The cats were absolutely nowhere to be found when the family returned to their property to assess the damage. During the next year, the Strogoffs lived somewhere else while their home was repaired. In January 2019 the family was finally able to return to their repaired home, but there was still no sign of the cats.
That’s when an unexpected break occurred. Just one week ago, Strogoff was talking with a worker at her house when she brought up Diamond. He told Strogoff the description exactly matched that of a cat he had been feeding just a few blocks from the family’s home. Awhile later, Diamond and the family were finally reunited. Sadly, Huguette is still missing.
