Valley church reunites Louisiana owner with lost cat

AHWATUKEE, AZ - If you've ever lost a pet or are missing one right now; have you ever thought about issuing a pet "Amber Alert"?

At the corner of 36th Street and Knox in Ahwatukee sits a church that has seen all kinds of animals land on their doorstep.

"Horses, dogs, cats, turtles, hamsters, birds you name it," said church worker Carol Pavlak. "We've had it all."

Those who work with Father Hoorman of the Corpus Christi Catholic Church say he has a way of finding lost animals.

So it wasn't unusual when a few months ago Hoorman stumbled across a gray cat with bright yellow eyes.

"Right there by the dumpster there he was, like he was ready to say good morning," said Hoorman.

The church took care of the cat for about six weeks, feeding him, saying prayers for him and even putting his picture in the church flyer.

"We weren't sure what his name was," said Pavlak. "But we all fell in love with him."

But when church workers took the cat to the vet they figured out where his real home was.

"They saw this flyer and they were like, 'Look, it looks just like our cat we have,'" said Pavlak.

The flyer was a Pet Amber Alert -- and the picture on it was for a cat named "Mr. Puss".

"So I called out Mr. Puss and he came running down the hall, came up to my leg," said Pavlak.

Turns out, a Louisiana woman named Geneva Espinoza lost her cat three months before while stopping at a Chandler motel about three miles away.

Call it an act of God, or maybe divine intervention.

"Far as I'm concerned it was," said Hoorman. "Because I prayed for that cat every day."

"Mr. Puss" is now back where he belongs.

"For anybody out there that has lost a pet, especially a thousand or two thousand miles like we did, don't ever give hope," Espinoza told ABC15 via Skype.

Her cat's story is giving church worker Gloria Buciak a little more faith that she may find her missing Yorkshire terrier.

"I've got hope, I'm not giving up," said Buciak.

To get more information on Pet Amber Alert go to PetAmberAlert.com .