Amy Davis with Jackie O, who was found in Lake Bluff two months after she disappeared from their Lake Forest home. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER/JWC MEDIA
LAKE FOREST – A longhaired domestic black cat named Jackie O went missing for two months, but thanks to a caring community, a team of dedicated veterinarians and a Good Samaritan, this story has a happy ending.
It also features a Chicago Bear.
“I have practiced emergency (veterinarian) medicine for 12 years, and Jackie O is the first pet I have seen that has survived for two months on its own, lived through sepsis, liver failure, severe malnutrition and still made it home,” said veterinarian Meredith Maczuzak of BluePearl Veterinary Partners in Northfield. “I loved the moment when she (left) our hospital to continue her life with the love of an entire family that waited patiently to make sure she was on the road to recovery.”
Amy Davis lives with her daughter, Brelana, son-in-law Ted Larsen and 14-month-old granddaughter Charlotte. After the cat went missing on September 1, Davis said, “We never expected to see Jackie O again, with the coyotes out there, the rain and the cold weather. Jackie O is very tiny, so Ted and I thought she was gone after a couple of weeks, but Brelana never gave up hope.”
The family recently moved to Lake Forest when Larsen became an offensive lineman for the Chicago Bears. Davis explained that Jackie O must have slipped out when people were making deliveries to the house.
“Ted was very involved in her search,” Davis said of the Chicago Bears’ 6-foot-2, 315-pound guard. “Several times a day, he would put Charlotte in a backpack and hike along the perimeter of the neighborhood and golf course, searching for Jackie O.”
Charlotte, Brelana and Ted Larsen; photo courtesy of Amy Davis.
Davis said as the family combed the neighborhood and put up posters of Jackie O, the neighbors were extremely supportive, and someone suggested posting on the LF/LB Lost Pets Facebook page, which has a dedicated following and has helped reunite many human families with their furry and feathered companions.
“Everyone who sees these posts is so inclined to share with their friends, so you can imagine how wide that net gets thrown across Lake Forest and Lake Bluff,” Davis noted.
On the morning of October 28 — nearly two months since the Davis family last saw Jackie O — Lake Bluff resident Mindy Walker, her dog, Jackson, and her sister-in-law saw something in Walker’s front yard that, at first glance, looked like a black garbage bag. But then they took a closer look and realized it was a black cat that wasn’t wearing a collar and had been declawed. When Walker’s dog started barking, the feline didn’t move. Walker tried feeding her, but the cat wouldn’t eat.
“We called the Lake Bluff Police Department, who gave us a police escort to the Knollwood Animal Hospital, and they scanned her to find she had a chip, which revealed a Lake Forest address,” said Walker.
The officer, five minutes later, spoke to Brelana, who was overcome with relief.
“It was so nice to reunite them, and I’m so glad Jackie O was OK,” Walker added. “I’d like to think that there was a reason why she was sitting in our front yard. I’m so happy that this story has a great ending and she’s made a recovery.”
Davis said she and her family are grateful that Walker and Jackson found Jackie O and went to great lengths to help her. It’s a mystery how the indoor cat survived the 25-minute trek to Lake Bluff without having claws to hunt for food.
According to Dr. Maczuzak, the BluePearl veterinarian, when Jackie O was admitted to the Critical Care unit at Blue Pearl, she was anemic, functionally blind and unable to stand; had lost 50 pounds; and was suffering from liver failure and sepsis. Dr. Shaunita Sharpe, veterinary technician Erin Bjorvik, and the rest of the technical staff in the ICU worked all night to stabilize her, including administering a blood transfusion and treating her dehydration.
“Without these initial efforts Jackie O would not have survived; they are the unsung heroes in Jackie O’s initial recovery,” said Maczuzak, who met Jackie O the following morning. “She was blind and so weak that she could only stand for several seconds at a time. However, from the moment I met her, I knew she had the will to live.”
Jackie O undergoing treatment at BluePearl Veterinary Partners; photo courtesy of Amy Davis.
Dr. Maczuzak explained that Jackie O’s food intake had to be carefully monitored, because overeating could be injurious to her health.
“With the help of antibiotics, fluids and nutritional supplementation, we slowly reversed her liver disease, and she beat that infection,” she said.
Jackie O soon began eating well on her own.
“She was a cat that knew she wanted to get home, Maczuzak said. “Her family never gave up hope, and Jackie O never stopped fighting.”
Within four days she regained her sight.
“She went from a cat not strong enough to stand or lift her head up, to a cat tentatively able to walk, albeit with collapsed joints,” the veterinarian said.
Davis said that when Jackie O first came home from the hospital, she walked sideways and couldn’t go up the stairs. She walks much better now and can get up the stairs, and her personality is back to normal.
To show her support for Jackie O, Charlotte dressed as a black cat for Halloween three days after Jackie O was found; photo courtesy of Amy Davis.
“We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the staff members at BluePearl Animal Hospital, who provided extraordinary care to Jackie O and, in our opinion, are responsible for her miraculous recovery,” Davis added.
Davis continues to stay involved with the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Lost Pets Facebook page.
“The one thing that the community has stressed is the importance of micro-chipping your pet, because if a pet is micro-chipped, there’s an extraordinary chance of getting it returned,” she said. “Had Jackie O not been chipped and returned to us she would not have gone to BluePearl.”
Jackie O is recuperating nicely at home. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER/JWC MEDIA
Jackie O before she went missing; photo courtesy of Amy Davis.
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The account of a more recent reunion — with quite a twist — appeared on the LF-LB Lost Pets page. Lake Forest resident Luke Mutter posted, on November 15, that he saw a dog loose, looking lost and confused, on the Old Elm Golf Club golf course in Highland Park.
“She didn’t have any tags with her name or the owner’s phone number, just her rabies tag, so I took her picture, logged it on the Facebook page and called the police,” said Mutter.
After taking her to business meetings that afternoon – he’s a broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group, also in Lake Forest — he brought the dog home. He noticed she was muddy, so he gave her a bath and later fed her. When his veterinarian at the Fort
Sheridan Animal Hospital asked for her rabies tag number, they immediately discovered the dog’s name and owner through the Lake County registry.
“To my horror, I discovered Riley actually belongs to the golf course, where she works chasing geese,” Mutter said. “It turns out that I had abducted the dog … stolen it for the afternoon.”
Mutter quickly returned the freshly bathed “goose chaser” to her employer and bought her a pink dog tag with her name and phone number.
“I did that,” Mutter muttered, “to avoid any repeat abduction and eliminate the risk of conviction for dog-knapping. The story unfolded on the LF-LB Facebook page, much to my humiliation — and much to the joy of its loyal fan base.”
Riley, professional goose chaser; photo by Luke Mutter.