Missing African serval cat back home

Simba, the one-year-old African serval cat who went missing in Chatham at the end of May, is back home safe and sound.

The domesticated exotic cat got out late one night while staying with the mom of his owner, Brady Webster, while he was on vacation.

The days that followed were filled with frantic searches.

“I was in Cuba when I got the phone call that he got out, so I paid $1,000 to get home on a flight the next day and start my search,” Webster said. “It was the absolute worst ten days of my entire life - but the most amazing moment I’ve ever experienced actually seeing him again after not knowing if I was ever going to.”

Nearly two weeks after he vanished — Simba was spotted in a wheat field 20 kilometres from where he went missing, with a farmer calling to tell the family.

Webster said they didn’t want to make public that he’d been located until the feline was given a clean bill of health by veterinarians - which he has.

He said he considers finding Simba again a miracle.

Brady Webster, seen on June 21, 2023, calls the safe return of Simba, his African serval cat, a miracle. (Travis Fortnum/CTV News Windsor)

“He’s been there through the thick and thin of my life,” Webster said. “Before rehab, after rehab, he’s what I look forward to every single day when I get home.”

He said they don’t know what Simba did in those ten days he was out in the wild or where exactly he ventured — but that it was a stress-filled time for he and his mom, who felt immense guilt over having the cat slip away under her watch.

Animal rehabber Stephanie Leipold, who helped the family search for Simba, said the anxiety of the task was made worse by scrutiny generated by public interested in the story.

“Brady lost a little hope with the comments from people wishing bad things to happen,” she said. “It wears on you, right? Like, this cat means everything to him.”

She said with the hate came a comparable amount of generosity and kindness.

Without the eyes on the story — and looking out for Simba himself — the search party wouldn’t have received the call that led to his return.

“They don’t know Brady and they don’t know Simba,” said Leipold. “Nobody had to help but they did their best to help anyway.”

Webster said he’s thankful for those who helped — and that he’s not paying mind to naysayers.

He’s ecstatic to have Simba home.

“I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t find him,” Webster said.