Lost and Found Cat is a children’s book written by Doug Kuntz and Amy Shrodes, and it is a true story about a girl who loses her cat while trying to flee her country by boat.
In August 2015, a car had snuck out of Mosul, Iraq with a mother, four daughters, and one son. Their father had recently passed. The mother, Sura, had paid a smuggler to help the family flee Iraq, as their city had become too dangerous. As the family was preparing to leave Iraq, they knew they could only bring what they could carry, only one full bag of food and water, and would buy clothes later. Sura had decided they could not leave without their cat, Kunkush. Sura prayed that the cat would stay quiet while hidden in a small carrier, or else the smuggler would make her pay much more to bring the cat.
Another smuggler met the family and led them on foot through forests and mountains, only stopping to eat and sleep. Sura was fearful, but her five children saw it as an adventure. They would feed and play with the cat in secret. The family reached a Kurdish village, where another smuggler was waiting to bring them into Istanbul. The family stayed in the city for two weeks, moving apartments frequently.
Eventually, the family would have to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece. Kunkush and the family were crammed into a small boat that could only hold up to twenty-five people but was carrying more than sixty. As the boat sailed through the sea, it started to fill with water due to its heavy weight. People were instructed to throw their belongings overboard, but most refused to oblige. The boat returned to the shore, and Kunkush’s carrier door was broken off as many people rushed to get off the boat. Sura told her kids to stay aboard, as she was determined to make the trip. The boat was then launched a second time with fewer passengers aboard. Sura was scared because only her son was able to swim. The family eventually made it to Lesbos.
When Hakam got off the boat, he put the carrier containing Kunkush on dry land and went back to help his mother get off the boat. Wet and frightened, the cat fled his carrier through the broken door and disappeared into the forest. As buses picked them up to continue the journey, the family refused to leave without their cat. Several volunteers helped them look for Kunkush. they searched for hours before they had to give up and leave In a little fishing village in Lesbos, there lived a bunch of island cats. Volunteers noticed a white cat with dirty fur, and even the local cats knew he was a stranger. One of the volunteers, Amy, told her friend Ashley about the cat. They suspected it was the cat that the family had lost, and they brought it to the vet where Dr. Konstantina shaved the cat’s fur, gave him shots and medicines, and gave him the Greek name Dias. The friends took Dias back to Amy’s apartment where they bathed him until he was clean. Dias stayed with Amy for over a month and would prowl around her apartment crying loudly. Amy believed he was searching for his family.
Amy and her friends were determined to reunite Dias with his family. volunteers created flyers, and Amy’s friend Michelle made a Facebook page for him. people donated money to help with medical care and travel. News stories about the cat appeared around the world and millions of people saw updates on Dias. Amy was pretty sure that his family had left Greece. Many refugee families had traveled to Germany, and since Amy’s time in lesbos was ending, she decided to take him to Germany. She flew with him to Berlin, where a British couple, Emma and Simon, agreed to take care of him. if his family was not found after a year, they would adopt Dias. o
On Valentine’s Day, Sura and her family saw their lost cat on a news website. their oldest daughter, Rihab, who had learned some English, contacted Amy through Facebook. It turned out the family had been living in Norway and not Germany. Rihan told AMy that Dias’s real name was Kunkush. A photographer named Doug had agreed to take Kunkush with him to Norway. but when he got to the airport in Berlin, he was told that the cat carrier was too small. she insisted that the cat could not turn around, but Kunkush immediately spun around in the carrier and was allowed on the plane. in Norway, Doug drove two hours to the family’s new home where they were eagerly waiting for their cat. When Sura opened the door, she burst into tears as Doug placed the cat in her hands. Kunkush and his family were reunited after traveling for four months and thousands of miles.
I find the story of Kunkush to be very inspiring, as it shows the determination of trying to reunite the family with their beloved, as well as covering the difficulty of the journey of the Iraqi family fleeing to Norway.
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