Cat stolen from Puyallup PetSmart rescued, gets adopted

Rylie the cat has found a new home after being cat-napped by a thief at a Puyallup PetSmart.

PUYALLUP, Wash. - Rylie the cat has found a new home after being cat-napped by a thief at a Puyallup PetSmart.

FOX 13 first brought you the story of Rylie the missing cat in early July.

That’s when Horn Creek Rescue workers say a thief marched into the PetSmart near closing time, disguised in baggy flannel and a massive cowboy hat, making a beeline for the cat adoption center. They say he was caught on video, breaking the lock on the cat’s cage, then walking out the door with Rylie.

"Very unexpected. It was very overwhelming to get her back I think we all cried," said Diana VanDusen, President of Horn Creek Rescue & PURRR Rescue. "She was a little bit thinner when we got her back, but still spunky old her."

After Diana VanDusen made a plea for help finding Rylie, the community was on the lookout.

She says around seven days after she disappeared, Rylie was found wandering in the shrubs near a Planned Parenthood building in South Hill by workers there.

"She’s very vocal and she was screaming in the bushes so they called her out," said VanDusen.

She says that Planned Parenthood building sits across a busy highway from the PetSmart where Rylie was taken.

"They heard some meowing and out runs this little cat and jumps in their arms," she said.

Staff there cared for her and tracked her microchip, leading back to VanDusen and the Horn Creek Rescue. She was found thin and covered in burrs.

"To get Rylie back in seven days, it’s a miracle. All I can say is it’s a miracle."

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Since that time, Rylie was given her remaining booster shots and medically cleared. She was put up for adoption under a different name in Federal Way for safety reasons. That’s when VanDusen says a loving family applied to adopt her, not knowing she was the cat that had been stolen.

"They had no idea, and they were just the perfect family for her," she said.

FOX 13 talked to a member of her new family who says that Rylie is still exploring her surroundings but is settling in well and is very talkative and playful.

VanDusen says they’ve added extra locks to Rylie’s old cage at the PetSmart and there is now a staff member watching the adoption center while it’s open, so that another theft doesn’t occur.

She says she’s grateful for the community’s support and is happy that Rylie found her "fairy-tail" ending.

"It’s like she just went on this great adventure that she can’t tell us about and the family just loves her to death," said VanDusen.

She says Rylie isn't the first cat to go missing from a PetSmart location.

"Tess was stolen from there," said VanDusen. "Ironically, around the same time."

Tess the kitten was never found, though VanDusen filed a police report.

A kitten named Black Velvet was also stolen from a Lakewood PetSmart a few months ago. VanDusen also contacted Lakewood Police following that incident.

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Meantime, the man who was caught on camera stealing Rylie remains on the loose. If you have any information, VanDusen says you can reach out to Horn Creek Rescue on social media and contact Puyallup Police.