Believed to Have Perished in the Montecito Mudslides, Patches Turns Up at a Shelter Three Years Later On Where She Is Adopted by Her Deceased Owner's Boyfriend

Patches Returned from the Presumed Dead in December of 2020

"I think Norm was a little teary; we were a little teary. I don't think Patches cried, but she was happy."
-- Becky Morrill of the Animal Shelter Assistance Program Cats

In December of 2017, the Thomas Fire roared through Santa Barbara and Ventura counties destroying more than a thousand buildings and scorching nearly two-hundred-eighty-two-thousand acres of land. Not surprisingly, when heavy rains inundated the area a few weeks later there were very few trees, shrubs, and vines left in order to help contain the deluge.

The hardest hit area was the tiny, albeit affluent, unincorporated city of Montecito nestled in between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, eight kilometers northeast of the city of Santa Barbara. In particular, the mudslides that followed on the heels of the heavy rains on January 9, 2018 left twenty-three people dead and destroyed more than one hundred homes in the hilly enclave.

One of the fatalities was Jose Gower who also kept "several" cats in her garage. Since the lives of cats are considered by most people not to have any value, their deaths and disappearances are never included even as collateral damage in the death tolls that the authorities release whenever natural disasters strike and in times of war.

Even more inexcusably, there was not anything in press reports that would even remotely suggest that either Gower's daughter, Briana Haigh, or her mother's live-in boyfriend, Norm Borgatello, even bothered to have searched for them in the aftermath of the storm. Instead, they merely picked up the pieces of their shattered lives and moved on to other things.

The Fates were not yet quite finished with them, however, and the past unexpectedly sprang back to life in December of 2020 when a pretty female tortoiseshell was turned in to the Animal Shelter Assistance Program Cats (ASAP Cats) in Santa Barbara. The deciphering of an implanted microchip soon thereafter revealed that the homeless waif was none other than Patches, one of Gower's long-lost and believed to have been dead cats.

The mere fact that she was found less than a quarter of a mile from the old garage that she had been cruelly relegated to is a further indication that neither Haigh nor Borgatello had even bothered to mount so much as a cursory search for her. As far as it is known, none of Gower's other cats have been found and that leaves open the distinct possibility that one or more of them also could have survived the mudslides and still be alive today.

Under such circumstances, it did not seem likely that either Haigh or Borgatello would have had any interest in reclaiming Patches but in a topsy-turvy world that is full of surprises and where miracles still do occasionally occur, Borgatello did the unexpected on New Year's Eve of 2020 when he showed up at ASAP Cats and adopted her. 

As shocking as it may be to some, many owners refuse to take back their long-lost cats. (See Cat Defender posts of September 8, 2020 and September 22, 2020 entitled, respectively, "Cruelly and Heartlessly Abandoned in the Godforsaken Scottish Highlands a Dozen Years Ago, Georgie Is Amazingly Found to Be Still Alive but Her Former Owner Does Not Want Any Part of Her" and "Snitch Is Found Alive Fourteen Years after His Disappearance but His Old Owner Refuses to Take Him Back in Spite of the Shameful Neglect Shown Him by His New Caretaker.")

Patches and Norm Borgatello Warily Approached Each Other...

Borgatello also received a pleasant reward for his fealty and compassion when Patches, apparently, recognized him at first sight. "I think Norm was a little teary; we were a little teary," Becky Morrill of ASAP Cats later confided to National Public Radio (NPR) on January 14, 2021. (See "The Cat Who Came Back: Patches, Believed Killed in Mudslide, Shows Up Three Years Later.") "I don't think Patches cried, but she was happy."

Even so, their happy reunion was bittersweet for Borgatello. "It was a great moment and very poignant...because it's both a wonderful reunion but a reminder of a very terrible loss for Norm," Morrill added.

Even though she apparently was not involved in the effort to rehome Patches, Haigh also was pleased with the outcome. "It's a nice thing to hear, after that many years, you can get a little bit of joy out of something that was quite horrific. I know my mom would be really happy," she told NPR. "And I think it is quite strange that it came about right before the three-year anniversary. Almost like a little message from mom."

She left little doubt, however, that she would have much preferred to have had her mother and house back rather than Patches. "I mean it's obviously not as bad as losing the house and mom, but it was pretty horrific to actually lose them as well, that kinda connection to her, " she added. Quite obviously, she is not a cat-lover.

Nothing has been disclosed concerning the state of Patches' health upon her arrival at the shelter, but if the photographs taken of her at that time are anything to go by she certainly looked as if she had come through her trying ordeal pretty much unscathed. That is far from being conclusive, however, given that an injured cat can do a world of healing over the course of three years.

Perhaps most amazing of all was how that she was able to have gotten out of the garage before it was swept away by the mud and rain. Even once she was out in the open she still had to deal with the mud, rain, and assorted debris that had cascaded down the hills toward the Pacific Ocean.

Once the turbulent weather had subsided, her next objective would have been to procure food and potable water. It is pretty much anyone's guess as to what she did, but possibly she was able to have hunted mice and to have scavenged some food from amidst the rubble. Area residents and emergency personnel may also have occasionally tossed her a few tidbits from time to time.

Nevertheless, losing her guardians and home in one wicked twist of fate plus being forced to go without food, water, veterinary care, and human companionship for such an extended period of time could not possibly have been anything other than exceedingly stressful for her. "It's a great mystery to us about where she's been for the last almost three years," Morrill threw up her hands in the air to NPR when she was asked to speculate on that topic.

Mercifully, Borgatello has compassionately decided not to treat her as if she were an itinerate migrant laborer by consigning her to some wretched outhouse as Gower had done but rather he allows her to live indoors with him. For her part, Patches is said to follow him around the house and to curl up behind him on the couch.

...before Embracing after a Three-Year Separation

Locking up cats in a garage is not only cruel but it additionally demonstrates a lack of intelligence and that is especially the case with those owners who live in a state such as California which is routinely plagued by wildfires, floods, mudslides, and earthquakes. Rather, owners need to bring them inside whenever violent weather and other natural disasters have been forecast and to have cages handy in case they are forced to evacuate themselves and their cats at a moment's notice. 

Deplorably, many owners think only of saving their own rotten hides at such times. (See Cat Defender posts of July 3, 2008, October 14, 2015, November 20, 2017, and December 20, 2017 entitled, respectively, "Phoenix Is Severely Burned but Still Manages to Save One of Her Kittens from the Humboldt Fire," "Because a Compassionate Firefighter from Oregon Chose to Care When His California Guardians Could Not Be Bothered with Doing So, Monty Burns Is Able to Escape the Valley Fire with His Life," "Already Ten Years Overdue, the Indomitable Pilot Is Burned to Within an Inch of His Life by a Deadly California Wildfire but Nonetheless Is Still Able to Finally Make It Home in Time for This Thanksgiving," and "Thomas Somehow Lives Through the Tubbs Fire in Spite of His Guardians Running Out on Him and Afterwards Being Incarcerated by an Employee of the Cat-Hating National Park Service.")

Equally deplorable, it is only rarely that big cats are shown any consideration by the authorities in times of emergency. (See Cat Defender posts of February 21, 2013 and December 13, 2013 entitled, respectively, "Orphaned by a Wildlife and Then Rescued by a Forest Ranger, Chips Is Bracing for a Frightening Return to the Wild" and "Chips Is Abandoned in the Perilous California Wild Where Her Fur Alone Is Worth $700 to Trappers.")

Above all, it is imperative that owners who truly care about their cats never to give up on locating them. Unless they have been spirited out of the area by someone or have unwittingly gotten trapped inside some conveyance, they usually can be found, like Patches, nearby.

In respect to Gower's other cats, it certainly is not too late for Borgatello to mount an all-out search for them. They could even be residing with one of his former neighbors.

In what amounts to a reoccurring nightmare, Montecito was flooded again earlier this month with more than seven inches of rain in a short span of time. Trees were toppled, roads flooded, and creeks overflowed their banks.

The city was placed under an evacuation order but those residents living on higher ground were allowed to shelter in place. (See the LAist, January 10, 2023, "Montecito Under Evacuation: What We Know So Far as Another Storm Brings Flooding, Mudslide Fears," the PBS News Hour, January 9, 2023, "Storm Forces Evacuations on Fifth Anniversary of Montecito's Deadly Mudslides," and The New York Times, January 17, 2023, "In Montecito, the Million-Dollar Views Still Come with Mudslide Risks.")

As best it could be determined, the city has not experienced any additional wildfires in the past five years and that has allowed new vegetation to sprout and to be planted on its barren hills and that accordingly prevented any mudslides this time around. Even so, the fate of those cats left behind by fleeing residents remains a top concern.

It has not been disclosed where Borgatello is hanging his hat these days but presumably he is still residing in either Montecito or somewhere nearby. As for the intrepid Patches, hopefully she is still alive and well and, above all, that she was inside, secure, and safe during this latest round of severe weather.

Photos: Jillian Title of the Animal Shelter Assistance Program Cats.