Cat taken from Hough neighborhood porch is returned home after 7 weeks

A Hough neighborhood cat who was missing for seven weeks has been reunited with his family.

A cat named Jack, who was taken from a porch in an incident caught on video, is back home, according to I Paw’d It Forward, a local nonprofit group that took over the search. A Facebook post in June by the cat’s owner, Nora Syverson, had included the home surveillance video, causing a stir on social media along with numerous phone calls and emails to police.

In a Facebook post Wednesday night, the group announced the cat’s homecoming and said it would share further details later.

Jack was taken at 8:18 p.m. June 5 from the back porch near Columbia and 20th streets, Syverson said.  The surveillance video appears to show a boy following Jack to the porch and petting him before picking him up and walking away.

Police later located and interviewed the boy, 14, who matched the description of the person in the video, Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said. The boy told police that the cat looked friendly, Kapp said. He then picked him up and, according to the boy, took the cat a few blocks before setting him down.

Charges of third-degree theft and second-degree criminal trespass were later referred to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for review. Referring to the theft charge, Kapp said cats are considered property under Washington law.

Jack is described as a white domestic shorthair with brown markings.