By Gillian Graham

Staff Writer

It was, by all accounts, a miracle on Elm Street.

For nearly two months, the Scally family searched three towns for their black and white cat Wyatt Earp after he escaped from Susie Scally’s Saco apartment. On Nov. 12, the emaciated and dehydrated cat stumbled from the basement of a neighbor’s home and collapsed under a nearby hedge. 

Wyatt, against the odds, had survived without food or water for 52 days.

Scally has had a soft spot for Wyatt ever since she saw repeated newspaper listings seven years ago for a black and white Maine coon cat that needed a home.

 “I’m not even a cat lover, but he was just so beautiful,” she said. “I never really liked cats much, but I kept looking for his picture in the paper. I met him and fell in love with him. He has a personality you wouldn’t believe. He has a lot of devil in him.”

Wyatt’s long adventure began around Sept. 21 when he darted out the door after a caregiver stopped by to feed him while Scally was in the hospital for knee surgery. An indoor cat, Wyatt had escaped before, but always came home right away.

When Wyatt didn’t immediately return home, Scally’s family inundated the neighborhood with posters and took out newspaper ads that offered a reward for his return. Their search spread through Saco into Biddeford and Old Orchard Beach as they knocked on doors, handed out small flyers with pictures of the coon cat and walked the neighborhood. Calls to the animal control officer, veterinary hospitals and Animal Welfare Society did not offer leads.

Soon the family began receiving calls from cat lovers who shared their stories and encouraged Scally to not lose hope. Employees of local businesses used their lunch breaks to search for Wyatt and Scally’s friends started a prayer chain that extended down the East Coast.

One look-alike cat from the neighborhood was captured four times by people who thought they had finally found Wyatt.

“There were so many people looking for him,” Scally said. “They were all so helpful.”

Through it all, Scally said she held on to hope that Wyatt would be found. She had one dream about her cat being stuck in a deep pit, a dream she now sees as a sign from God that her cat was in trouble.

“My faith was getting kind of wavery, but I still held on,” she said. “I knew I would find him eventually.”

Eventually came Nov. 12.

  A man visiting his mother several doors from Scally’s house heard meowing in the basement. When he opened the door he found a skinny cat foaming at the mouth. Later, when he took his car to Saco Valley Autocare on Elm Street, he told owner Judy Reny how he’d found the emaciated animal.

 “I said ‘Oh my God, that cat belongs to the people next door,’” Reny said. “I ran down the street to tell (the Scallys). I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

By the time Reny made the connection between the skinny cat and Wyatt, he had been let out of the house. Susie Scally, who had been at a doctor’s appointment, arrived home to find her daughter-in-law, Brenda Scally, standing in the driveway holding a bowl of food.

“Her whole face was all happy. I just knew they found the cat,” Susie Scally said.

Scally, her son, Jim, and 18-year-old grandson Michael scoured the neighbor’s yard for any signs of Wyatt. They found him on the ground underneath a hedge, unable to stand on his own.

“I didn’t even give any thought to my knees, I went flat on the ground instantly,” Susie Scally said. “I just wanted my cat. If it had been one more day, he would have been gone.”

She rushed Wyatt to his veterinarian in Biddeford, who referred them to the Maine Veterinary Referral Center Emergency and Specialty Hospital in Scarborough.

“They took one look at him and didn’t think he’d make it through the night,” Scally said. “I think we broke the speed limit getting there, we were so upset.”

Dr. Kelly Hill was one of four emergency veterinarians who treated Wyatt during his stay at the hospital.

“He was in horrible condition, severely emaciated and dehydrated and very weak,” Hill said.

Hill said Wyatt received intravenous fluids and a feeding tube. He was fed and hydrated slowly to prevent other health problems. His recovery picked up after a blood transfusion.

“It took him a while even to be able to sit up,” Hill said. “He definitely had the will to survive.”

Hill said Wyatt likely survived his 52-day captivity by using his body fat. The 22-pound cat – once so big his belly fur dragged on the ground – was down to 8 pounds by the time he was found.

“I’ve seen stranger things happen,” Hill said. “I think it was a miracle he survived.”

Scally, who said she is amazed by the care Wyatt received, soon faced mounting hospital bills. As the total neared $3,000, Hill met with other hospital staff who decided to cap the bill at $2,200. Scally said she was able to pay $200 in cash, but had to charge the rest.

But Wyatt, she said, is worth every penny.

“It’s just a plain miracle that he’s alive,” Scally said. “It’s only by the grace of God, really.”

Now home following two weeks in the hospital, Wyatt is just about back to his old self, Scally said. He has been feasting on salmon cat food and is slowly gaining weight.

“He’s promoted himself from the end of the bed up to the top of the bed on the spare pillow,” Scally said. “I’ll wake up and he’s sitting there watching me.”

As she watched Wyatt wind his way through her living room looking for a sunny spot to nap, Scally was moved to tears remembering the people who searched for her cat.

“People have a lot of faith in this area,” she said. “People have a lot of heart when it comes to animals.”