MT. ULLA — Joe and Teyah Hodge have 41 cats they take care of between their feed store, their home and the hay barn, but their black and white bobtail cat Felix is special.

But on Dec. 13, the 7-year-old cat inadvertently went on a trip and was lost. According to the Hodges, he was atop one of the store trucks, and an employee needed to run an errand.

“He didn’t realize Felix was on the roof and he drove off,” said Joe. The employee drove just over four miles away from the feed store on Hwy. 801, to Piedmont Tire. And somewhere between the feed store and the tire shop, Felix jumped off.

“The truck stopped at the three-way stop sign on 801, and he may have jumped off there,” said Joe. When he came in to the store later, he mentioned that he had not seen Felix and asked Teyah if she had. She had not. They looked, with no luck, and became mildly concerned. They decided to check security cameras, expecting to find him in the barn, mousing or snoozing tucked into a warm spot.

But Felix was not showing up anywhere. They then checked the videos from earlier and realized he had been atop the truck when the employee drove off.

“We immediately drove down to Piedmont Tire and looked everywhere, but he wasn’t there,” said Joe.

Because he is a bobtail, it makes Felix a bit easier to recognize, but the couple also knew he was now lost, and he had some challenges. A while back, Felix developed gum disease, they said, and the vet advised that he have his teeth pulled.

“The vet told us he would be fine, and he has been,” said Teyah. But he eats soft food, and having no teeth and trying to survive in the wild made them worry that he might be unable to hunt successfully. He does, however, still have his claws.

Felix had also been injured earlier in the week and that Friday morning was the first day he had wanted to be outside since the previous Monday. So he was not quite at top form.

“Felix has always been special to us,” said Teyah. “When our dog Sadie got sick, Felix stayed by her side, and when Sadie died (in 2017), she helped us get through it, and Felix is our biggest connection to Sadie.” The idea that they may have lost Felix was more than the couple could stand.

The next day, they went door to door along their road and nearby streets, canvassing every home, asking if anyone had seen the black and white feline. No one had, but people in the small community wanted to help. They posted Felix’ picture on the store’s Facebook page, and people began to share it.

They initially got a call that a cat matching Felix’s description was in Millbridge, but it was not Felix. A friend named Monica up the road from the couple posted Felix in the Facebook Lost and Found, and suddenly it had hundreds of shares.

“We got a report that he’d been spotted near the three-way stop sign on Dec. 16 and 17, so we hired a thermal drone to search one square mile around the stop sign,” said Joe. “We found deer, raccoons, but no cat.” What was next for them to do?

They created posters and then did a direct mailer and sent it out to two routes near their store and home. And a friend shared Felix on Tiktok.

Now there were thousands sharing the story of the small lost cat, and everyone was out looking,

But still, no Felix.

And then, Thursday afternoon, Jan. 2, Joe got a call.

“I had been out checking on another report of a cat that looked like him but wasn’t when my phone rang,” he said. “A woman named Emily said her daughters had been out feeding their cats when, in the distance, they spotted a black and white cat. They knelt down and he came running right up. They put him in a kennel and pulled up the Facebook posts to compare, and then she called me and said ‘I believe I have your cat.’ And I said ‘where are you? I’m on my way.'”

And lo and behold, it was Felix, thinner, tired, but otherwise apparently healthy.

“The first thing he did in the car on the way home was eat Temptations treats, which he loves,” laughed Joe, who called Teyah and let her know Felix was coming home.

At the store, he put food in Felix’s bowl and another cat, Ida, came over to welcome him home, and they shared a bit to eat, before Felix crept into the office and onto Joe’s lap for a nap.

“He was exhausted,” Joe said. “You can see in the picture, he looks so tired. And yes, he is much thinner, but otherwise he seems just fine.”

Joe said he couldn’t help crying when he and Felix were reunited.

“There is just something very special about him,” he and Teyah both said. He greets everyone at the feed store when they come in, everyone knows him, and everyone loves him. And the Facebook community was flooded with the happy news that Felix had been found.

And Felix has a regular routine, that often includes riding the Gator out to the barn, something Joe’s mother taught Felix before she died in 2020.

“Some nights, he wants to be in the store, and some nights he wants to be out,” said Teyah. “On cold nights, I like to keep him in. But mornings, he often goes out to the chicken house for a little mousing. Then it’s lunchtime, and after lunch, he does his meet and greet at the store. He’s our little mascot.”

The pair celebrated Christmas without Felix, “and it just wasn’t the same. It was blah. We didn’t go anywhere or do anything, because we were worried and we missed him.”

Both of the Hodges say it’s nothing short of a miracle that Felix is home, and they offered their heartfelt thanks to all in the community who came together to help them find a cat.

“I hope we can share all the lost animals, and make every story a Felix story,” said Joe.

Anyone who’d like to welcome Felix home or meet the now famous cat is welcome to stop by Hodges Farms store on Hwy. 801 where the family continues to manufacture their own livestock feed and grow and sell horse hay.

On Friday, Felix was still recovering from his weeks’ long adventure, but he was planning to be in the store later in the afternoon, back on his meet and greet tour.

“It all feels right again,” said Joe.