COEUR d’ALENE — When Lauren Moreno saw the cat brought to the Kootenai Humane Society Dec. 11, it was nearly dead. It was cold, starved and hurt.

“She was in really rough shape,” said Moreno, a cat technician. “We didn’t think she was going to make it.”

Volunteer Grace Spagnola had the same reaction. The cat was weak, stiff and could hardly hold its head up.

“We thought she was on her way out,” Spagnola said. “I thought she was going to pass in our arms.”

But she didn’t.

They gave her fluids and food. They warmed her with blankets.

It worked.

“She started to perk up a little bit,” Spagnola said.

The cat was microchipped. They contacted the owner, Charlie Cederquist.

Her cat had been found.

Cederquist couldn’t believe it. “Ama” had been missing nearly six months.

“Are you kidding me right now?” she asked.

A monthlong search that included flyers and endless walks and drives off Ramsey Road near the Coeur d’Alene Airport, and showing pictures of their cat and asking anyone and everyone if they had seen it, turned up nothing.

She and her family had given up hope.

And now, long after her humans had moved from an RV in Hayden to a home in Coeur d’Alene, Ama had been found in a shipping container in the airport shop area.

Cederquist was in tears.

“My kids are going to be so happy,” she said.

That was the easy part.

Ama had to be taken to emergency care at a local veterinarian. It appeared she suffered a traumatic injury to her hind area and had another wound.

Her road to recovery continues.

Cederquist said she got Ama when she was a kitten from a friend in July 2019, apparently abandoned by her mother.

“She was so tiny. This tiny, little underfed kitten,” she said.

She quickly became a member of the family, but when they had to move from a Coeur d’Alene house to an RV park near the airport in June, Ama was less than thrilled. Not long afterward, she disappeared.

“One day she didn’t come back,” Cederquist said.

Their stay at the RV park was only a month, a temporary spot until other housing was found elsewhere. So when it came time to leave, they had no choice but to go without Ama.

Their search didn’t end. Cederquist went to the area at least once a week through July, hoping to find her cat.

“Nobody had seen her,” she said.

But Ama was not forgotten.

At a Dec. 5 party, Cederquist’s daughter told Santa all she wanted for Christmas was Ama back.

Cederquist feared her daughter would be disappointed, but St. Nick delivered.

A week later, airport personnel found a half-frozen, ailing, emaciated cat and brought it to KHS. Actions there were the first step toward saving her.

When Cederquist saw her for the first time later at the vet's office, Ama stood up.

“She was excited to hear my voice,” Cederquist said.

Ama has since seen more veterinarians and is home, but challenges remain. She has trouble controlling her bowels, had worms and another wound began to develop.

A trip to a veterinary research center in Pullman, Wash., could be necessary.

“It’s been pretty expensive,” Cederquist said.

But she and her family are doing what they can for Ama, keeping her safe, warm and fed.

“We’re happy that’s she back,” Cederquist said, adding with a laugh, “the kids are a lot happier than I am because they don’t have to pay the vet bills and clean up after her.”

Humor aside, Cederquist said they'll do what they can for her.

“We want her to have the best quality of life she can,” she said.

Moreno was pleased to hear Ama is doing better.


“I’m happy she lived. Pretty awesome,” she said.

Spagnola described it another way.

“We call her the Christmas miracle,” she said.