Rick Primmer knew time was against him in the search for his beloved travel buddy Lil’ Bitz, his family’s orange tabby cat.
Lil’ Bitz had been riding with Primmer, a truck driver from Spokane, WA, for about four months, but ran off last month during a pit stop at Milford’s Pilot Travel Center off I‑95 March 12.
Primmer couldn’t stick around long, so he reached out for help on the Internet.
Fortunately for him, and for Lil’ Bitz, Shelton resident Renee Cribbins-Warner was soon on the case — and within two weeks the pair were together again.
Lost
Primmer said he was replacing a fuse and was only gone for about 15 minutes when the cat must have leapt from the truck at the Milford pit stop.
“I spent two and a half hours looking for him, and this was at 1 in the morning,” Primmer said. “He’s a friend, plus he’s my daughter’s cat and she entrusted me with him. I grew so attached.”
With rubber to burn and 2,600 miles to travel back to Spokane, Primmer couldn’t stay in Connecticut for long.
But he also couldn’t bear to give up looking for Lil’ Bitz. He posted fliers and announcements on the Internet in the hope that a stranger might keep an eye out for the furry companion.
Luckily, one did.
Shelton resident Renee Cribbins-Warner saw Primmer’s Craigslist ad and threw herself into the search effort.
“I just knew I was going to find him,” she said.
In 2009, Cribbins-Warner was able to recover one of her own lost cats thanks to the “compassion and care” of a stranger, and now she felt compelled to keep the kindness going.
A few days later, Primmer said someone reported seeing Lil’ Bitz at an industrial park about a quarter mile away from the I‑95 truck stop, so he rented a car while in Albany on business and drove back to Milford to look for the cat.
Primmer spent the weekend walking the area and searching — to no avail.
“I stood where I lost him the first time and it was hard to walk away,” he said. “I knew he was out there, I just didn’t know where. It broke my heart twice to have to walk away. I really didn’t think I’d ever see him again.”
Meanwhile, Cribbins-Warner and her husband were hard at work in aiding the search, doing everything from spreading the word on Facebook to hanging laminated flyers around town and speaking with people in the area.
“They don’t survive well on their own; I think that’s a big misconception people have about cats,” Cribbins-Warner said. “People just kind of turn their heads when it comes to lost animals, especially with cats.”
Found!
As it turns out, Lil’ Bitz had not run off very far from the Milford rest stop where it disappeared, and Cribbins-Warner spotted him in the area on March 20, a week after she began searching.
She called to the cat and tried to coax him over, but Lil’ Bitz was frightened and very skittish.
She then set a Havahart trap with food in order to catch the cat.
“I’m so glad I found him when I did. He was so thin and definitely feeling the effects of being outside,” she said.
She connected with Primmer and he rescheduled his travel route to come pick up Lil’ Bitz.
“My heart was pounding when I got the call, I couldn’t get there fast enough,” Primmer said. “It took me five days to get back up there. I was ecstatic, and so was Lil Bitz when he saw me. That whole day he was in my lap and my arms, laying beside me and cuddled up.”
Reunited
Primmer arrived back in Connecticut on March 25 to be reunited with Lil’ Bitz.
Cribbins-Warner said the reunion was a warm celebration for everyone, and that she hopes it can serve as an example of the benefits of helping animals and one another.
“My daughter seeing the progression of this story and witnessing helping someone we didn’t know and getting this cat back to safety is a priceless lesson for her to learn,” she said.
Primmer said he is “forever grateful” to Cribbins-Warner and her husband.
Lil’ Bitz was missing from Primmer for a total of 14 days but is now back on the road.
“I’ve been out here for 25 years, and it takes the monotony of being by yourself away,” Primmer said of having Lil’ Bitz in the passenger’s seat. “It’s nice to walk back to the truck and a little head pops up and somebody is happy to see you. He cuddles up, sits beside me, he’s my bud.”