$1,500 reward offered for return of missing cat
BILL BULEY | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 9 months AGO
Wiley is missing from his Coeur d'Alene home and his owner is offering a $1,500 reward for his return.
Bill Buley covers the city of Coeur d'Alene for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He has worked here since January 2020, after spending seven years on Kauai as editor-in-chief of The Garden Island newspaper. He enjoys running. | March 9, 2021 1:06 AM
COEUR d’ALENE — Life isn’t the same without Wiley.
“There’s a huge void in our house,” Katy Sevy said Monday. “It’s so quiet. He’s not there to greet you when you come home. He’s not sleeping next to us. Even our other pets, they don’t seem the same.”
The estimated 7-year-old cat, which normally stayed indoors, was last seen Feb. 22. It ventured out of its Coeur d’Alene home off Elderberry Circle when a garage door was left open.
Despite searching for hours, putting up hundreds of fliers all over town, posting classified ads in The Press and contacting the Kootenai Humane Society, there has been no sign of Wiley, who is microchipped. Sevy even put up cameras around their home in case he returned but couldn’t get inside.
“We’ve done so much to try and find him,” Sevy said. “I don’t know what else to do.”
Sevy desperately wants Wiley home. She and her husband, Shea, are offering a $1,500 reward for information leading to the safe return of the gray-stripped tabby.
“Our cat got us through the hardest times in life,” she wrote.
When Sevy adopted Wiley from the Idaho Falls animal shelter about three years ago, he had been hit by a car and had his jaw wired together. They fed him with a syringe and nurtured him back to health with lots of love.
Wiley returned the favor.
“He’s just been the best cat ever,” she said. “Every day you come home from work, he was just there ready for you, he’d follow you around the house. When we brought him home, he just loved on our dogs, too.”
When another cat in the house got sick, Wiley looked after it.
When Sevy became ill, Wiley curled up close to comfort her.
“He took such good care of me,” she said. “When I was having those surgeries it was really rough.”
“He could sense when I was hurting,” she continued. “He would just lay across me and purr.”
But Wiley wandered away in late February when a garage door wasn’t shut all the way.
Sevy remains hopeful, noting that she read missing cats return home even a month later. With the cold winter nights, she believes Wiley might have gone up to a door seeking warmth inside. He’s such a personable cat she believes someone might have him in their home.
“He was so adaptable when we got him, he fit in immediately,” she said.
Because cats are considered free roaming in Idaho, Kootenai County animal control will not pick them up and the Kootenai Humane Society does not accept domestic cats unless they are owner surrendered.
Something that worries Sevy, she was told some people trap cats and take them to the mountains and release them.
She prays that is not the case.
Wiley’s disappearance has meant some lonely nights.
“It’s just so hard thinking where he could be and not knowing,” Sevy said.
Anyone with information about Wiley can call 208-220-9846
ARTICLES BY BILL BULEY
Companions Animal Center has adopted out nearly 2,000 dogs, cats in 2025
Companions Animal Center has adopted out nearly 2,000 dogs, cats in 2025
As if to prove it, signs on two kennel doors proclaim “I have been adopted! I’m currently waiting to be picked up by my new parents.” One is a timid black mastiff. But the shelter remains crowded. Monday, it has about 50 large dogs filling kennels, including in the new wing oped this year, and there is still a four-month waiting list with names of about 80 dogs that people are looking to surrender pets.
Post Falls man named director of ministry with global reach
Post Falls man named director of ministry with global reach
Grassi, a longtime hunter and fisherman, started what was originally called “Let’s Go Fishing Ministry, Inc.” with a focus on outdoors, men and God. It was later changed to “Men’s Ministry Catalyst." The emphasis was on helping men understand their role as defined in the Bible.
Nonprofit foundation helps family become homeowners for first time
Nonprofit foundation helps family become homeowners for first time
The Young Family’s Foundation launched about a year ago with a mission "to empower young, hardworking families to achieve the dream of home ownership. Even if a family saved $25,000, they would still be $19,000 short of the down payment needed to buy a $550,000 home, which is the median price in Kootenai County. It’s estimated that only about 20% of area households can afford to buy a home.