Search

  • Note to users: Technical difficulties are causing some comments to not appear. We appreciate your patience as we work on it.

  • Taffy sighting just a tease

    Font Size:
    Default font size
    Larger font size
    By Kurt Allemeier | Tuesday, May 6, 2008 12:16 AM CDT | () comments

    The cat looked like Taffy, but technology said otherwise.

    Over the weekend, a Davenport woman thought she had found Taffy, an orange tabby that captured the hearts of Quad-Citians after being lost by Tom and Mary Dohnke of California during a visit to the Quad-Cities last summer.

    Taffy has been implanted with a microchip that shows its name, owner and contact information.

    When the cat was scanned Monday, it wasn’t Taffy.

    Joyce Almquist’s husband saw a cat in their neighborhood off Utica Ridge Road on Sunday and she caught it. She recalled the missing cat’s markings and thought it looked like Taffy. She thinks she saw Taffy running loose last year near 53rd Street before knowing the cat’s saga.

    Tom Dohnke talked to Almquist on Sunday night and was on pins and needles waiting to hear whether it was his long-lost buddy, but also was realistic about the chances that his friend finally had been found.

    “I’ve been there a hundred times when people have said they have Taffy,” he said. He tersely passed on the news of the faux feline later Monday.

    Almquist knew from the moment she saw a picture of the real Taffy on Monday that the cat she’d caught wasn’t the California cat. She took the cat to the Humane Society of Scott County.

    Taffy disappeared from the Dohnkes’ RV on Aug. 3 while they were parked at Lowe’s on Elmore Avenue in Davenport. After traveling five weeks cross-country in their RV for a family reunion and visiting fellow Vietnam War veterans, they’d stopped at Wal-Mart for the night. Taffy, on a harness, got spooked, slipped the harness and hasn’t been seen since. Dohnke stayed behind in the Quad-Cities for weeks, searching for his lost cat and putting up posters.

     Taffy is a tabby with a white chest, black dots on his mouth and big yellow eyes. He is microchipped, neutered and has all of his claws.


    Kurt Allemeier can be contacted at (563) 383-2360 or kallemeier@qctimes.com.

    Previous Next
    Share
    Email
    Print
     

    Keywords: Taffy lost pets Tom Dohnke Mary Dohnke

    More Stories By Kurt Allemeier

    () comments

    Refinance $300,000 for Only $965/Month
    $300,000 Mortgage for only $965/month. Save $1,000's - No obligation.
    www.HomeLoanHelpLine.com
    Refinance and Save $1,000S
    $150,000 Mortgage for $483/month. Compare up to 4 free quotes.
    www.pickamortgage.com
    Online College Programs - US Residents
    Get matched with up to 5 colleges with 1 form. Serious inquiries only.
    www.NexTag.com/online-degrees
    Ads by Yahoo!
    Quad Cities Weather
    57°F View Forecast
    sponsored by:
    River Levels | Closings | Flight Information
    Nicholas Sheley could be linked to 8 deaths in the region after going on an alleged killing spree. How interested are you in news of this nature?
    Very
    Mostly
    Somewhat
    Not very
    Not at all
    I have no opinion
    View Results

    Marketplace

    Free Time