Since the day she was adopted by her family, a cat by the name of Violet hasn’t ceased surprise them.
Drew Potter gave his daughter and stepdaughter Violet, a Persian mix, as a gift in 2022 by adopting her from a local shelter in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“I got her during a time when my family was going through separation,” Potter told The Dodo. “I was dating the mother of my daughter, and we’d been together for about seven years, but we were coming to the end of our relationship, and it was a very, very sad time for the girls particularly.”
Yet Violet seemed to cheer everyone right up — more than Potter ever imagined she would.
“I brought her home to raise the spirits, and she very effectively did that,” Potter said. “We really all enjoyed Violet. She was sweet and kind.”
However, a year and a half later, Violet disappeared without a trace.
She was an indoor cat, so I had counseled the children against letting her outside, but it still happened, according to Potter. The girls continued since Violet loved being outside for a week or two because she would hang out close to the home. To cut a long tale short, she simply vanished. She appeared to be such an expensive cat, so I kind of figured someone had snatched her.
The girls searched for Violet everywhere, posting flyers and asking neighbors if they’d seen her — but she was never found.
“We’d only had her for about a year and a half, but we had all made a solid bond with Violet,” Potter said. “So when she left, it was really hard. Violet was dearly loved by all of us.”
Eventually, Potter and his family had no choice but to accept that Violet was gone. The family also left their old home — Potter moved into a place on his own, and his former partner, daughter and stepdaughter moved to Sparta, Michigan.
Then, three years later, Potter got some unexpected news when Carly Quinn, director of Ionia County Animal Control, sent him a Facebook message.
“When I answered the Facebook message, she [Quinn] said, ‘I think I have your cat,’” Potter said. “I was very, very tired. I was just finishing a 12-hour shift, and it just felt like a dream when she said ‘Violet.’”
A few days before, Quinn had gotten tagged in a Facebook post about an injured cat lying in a woman’s garden.
Quinn told The Dodo that the woman said the cat hadn’t moved in hours or perhaps even days. She was lying down in her garden of flowers by the home. Violet could hardly lift her head when I got there. When I approached her and she didn’t try to flee, as most cats do when a stranger approaches them outside, I realized it was bad. Her eyes made it clear that she needed assistance.
In addition to being extremely exhausted, Violet was also underweight, dehydrated, and parasite-infested.
Quinn rushed Violet to the vet, but she wasn’t sure if Violet would make it. But the vet team did everything they could to help Violet, including giving her a good grooming.
“Once our vet staff started to shave her, you could tell she started to relax,” Quinn said. “Especially after her flea bath, she started to perk up. But the next day, she was a totally different cat. She stayed the night at the vet and got canned food, water and [a] nice plushy bed. When I picked her up in the morning she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Literally, because it was the only thing they didn’t shave!”
The next step was finding Violet’s family. Luckily, Violet had a microchip that listed Potter as her dad, although Potter’s contact details were outdated. So Quinn turned to Facebook.
“I had tried all day to find him,” Quinn said. “But Drew’s full name is fairly generic … so Facebook came up with a million different possible people that could be him. After going through probably 30 Facebook profiles, I found the correct Drew. I came to a photo of Violet being hugged by his daughter. I remember saying to myself, ‘Got himmmmm.’”
The following day, Potter and his stepdaughter—who at the time was residing with him—went to the shelter to pick up Violet, who was by this point close to 10 years old.
She was happy and content when they placed her in Potter’s arms, he claimed. She was really frail due to everything she had gone through. I’m not sure if she was conscious when I got her home, but she immediately used the litter box and pretended to be in her place. She rose onto the couch and allowed us to pet her.
“Everybody was just in tears,” Potter said. “They couldn’t believe it. We were just all kind of in shock.”
Violet lived with Potter for a couple of months, but she eventually moved to Sparta to be with his daughter as well as his stepdaughter, who’d moved back in with her mom. Violet is getting lots of love and attention there, and she’s thriving, Potter said.
The majority of Potter’s recollections of the separation that were triggered by Violet’s return were happy ones. Potter is once more taken aback by how much joy Violet has brought to his family.
There is no other way to describe it but a miracle, according to Potter. It is only a blessing. I want to express my gratitude to Violet for coming back into our life.
