From Ontario to Yarmouth: After missing for two years Corbin the cat reunited with family

YARMOUTH, NS – Talk about a ‘purrfect,’ high-flying ending. 

Corbin the cat, who had been missing for two years, has been reunited with his family in Yarmouth after being flown to southwestern Nova Scotia from Ontario via a private plane, thanks to the caring efforts of animal lovers who truly went above and beyond.

“We will never be able to explain or put into words how honoured and how humbled and how grateful we are that such an amazing community came together and brought our boy home,” says Yarmouth resident Justice Ryder.

“Corbin is four years old. He was missing for half of his life,” she says.

Corbin, who joined the Ryder family as a kitten, was always affectionate, constantly sharing and receiving snuggles.

The family lived in Ontario, in an area between the towns of Delhi and Simcoe. One day two years ago, Corbin disappeared.

The family searched for him, went door-to-door and made postings on social media. They couldn’t find him despite constant and extensive searching.

Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Was he even alive, they wondered?

Six months went by and the family moved to Nova Scotia.

In Yarmouth County, they have a hobby farm, similar to their life in Ontario. But a big difference in Nova Scotia is they get to live near the sea, which was always a dream.

But even with the passage of time they always wondered: What ever happened to Corbin?

A chance sighting 

Since they weren’t living in Ontario anymore, Justice Ryder stopped following many Ontario social media pages.

Thankfully, however, she hadn’t deleted them all because one day she saw a lost and found post.

There was a photo of a cat. He looked just like Corbin.

The cat had been found by a person named Blaire Sylvester just a few minutes from the house where the Ryders had lived in Ontario.

‘That looks like Corbin!’ Ryder commented.

‘A spitting image’

Justice Ryder’s comment caught the eye of die-hard animal lover Sandi Fettes, a volunteer with Purrfect Companions Cat Rescue and Adoption.

Fettes had tried to help the family find Corbin after he had gone missing. The women reconnected.

Some sleuthing work was launched through photographs to determine if the cat was Corbin. A black and white tuxedo cat, he had very distinctive markings.

“Justice had the old pictures of Corbin and Blaire had new ones,” Fettes says, noting the cat was very friendly and not neutered, which also aligned with Corbin at the time he went missing.

“We analyzed every angle, everything, every mark on his face,” she says.

Everything was matching up.

“It was a spitting image.”

Even Justice’s mother who lives in Ontario went to see the cat – yup, it’s Corbin, she said.

From there to here

In Yarmouth thousands of kilometres away, the Ryder family couldn’t believe that Corbin been found.

They were anxious to be reunited. But how?

Justice Ryder contacted family members to see if any were planning trips to Nova Scotia. She explored flying Corbin on a commercial airline to Halifax, but it was very expensive.

Fettes, meanwhile, wasn’t giving up on a reunion that was two years in the making.

She was now caring for Corbin and exploring ways to get him to Nova Scotia. She talked to friends heading to Nova Scotia but nothing worked out, usually because they were traveling with their own animals.

“If I had the money I would have flown him down there myself,” Fettes says. “I was obsessed.”

Then Fettes randomly saw a posting about Canadian Wings of Rescue (CWoR) – an organization that provides air transportation to reunite animals and families, and gets animals to new adopted homes. They achieve this through a nationwide inventory of volunteers, pilots and aircraft.

Fettes reached out with Corbin’s story. The organization definitely wanted to help.

“Perhaps the only thing private pilots love more than flying, is flying with a purpose,” says Mark Bett, the organization’s director of operations and a pilot himself.

“Animal rescue flights are a way for pilots to log flight hours to stay current and practice their flying but in a way that is meaningful and does so much good,” he says. “Typically after a pilot flies an animal rescue flight once, they are hooked.”

Bett says there is a tremendous sense of satisfaction and fulfillment you get as a pilot, knowing that your skills and resources have made a difference in making an animal’s life better.

Hillary Spencer, a veterinarian in training, who serves as director of Animal Health and Welfare for Wings of Rescue, says the work done by CWoR is not only meaningful to the families, rescues and the societies they partner with, but to all of their volunteers at all levels.

The organization doesn’t just work with dog and cat rescues. It provides transport to any vulnerable animals that need assistance and that can be safely transported by one of their pilots and fit in their aircraft. CWoR partners with several wildlife rehabilitation societies, remote veterinary care providers and domestic animal rescues all over Canada.

When Wings of Rescue shared Corbin’s predicament, two pilots ­– Greg Campbell and Clay Berndt – stepped up to get Corbin to his family.

“We are so fortunate that we were able to give Corbin the opportunity to experience the health, home and hope he very much deserves,” Spencer says.

A purrfect ending

Getting Corbin to Yarmouth was very meaningful to Fettes.

“I just want to see that happy ending,” she says. “Corbin is so loveable. It was hard to give him up and I only had him for two-and-a-half weeks.”

She cried at the airport when sending him off, but they were happy tears.

Before he was sent home Corbin was neutered and microchipped. During the two years he was missing it appears food wasn’t an issue as he wasn’t malnourished.

Because he’s still so affectionate and laid back his family wonders if he had been looked after by someone in the time he was missing, although no one ever responded to Ryder’s initial missing posts from two years ago saying he had been found. 

Now back home with the Ryders – Justice, Alex, Lena, Hudson and Maverick – Corbin is his usual loving self.

The family thought they’d have to pick him up in Halifax but the pilots flew him directly to the Yarmouth airport for the Aug. 6 reunion.

Corbin is back to being an indoor cat.

His family jokes that he’s also grounded.

The family is forever grateful to everyone who helped get Corbin home. They intend to hold a fundraiser to support the work of Canadian Wings of Rescue.

As for Fettes, Justice Ryder calls her a determined mastermind.

“It’s pretty remarkable,” Ryder says about getting Corbin back.

“These pilots, they’re one of a kind. You hear so many bad things in the world. I feel people like them are just hidden behind all the bad. It’s heartwarming and absolutely humbling to have them do this,” she says.

Some people may wonder why anyone would go to so much effort – after all, it’s just a cat.

But Ryder, Fettes and Wings of Rescue say it’s never just an animal – it’s a family.

Besides, if Corbin could survive being lost for two years, the least anyone could do was to help bring him back home.