Burnaby, B.C. couple Robin and Lisa Hoare were so heartbroken when their tabby cat Luna went missing, they paid Washington State pet detective Harry Oakes more than $1,000 to try to find her.

Oakes and willow, his border collie tracking dog, followed Luna’s scent more than 10 kilometres to New Westminster before giving up last week.

“We got our two cats, Luna and Bear, around the time we got engaged in January, 2010,” said Hoare Wednesday. “We figure they were born, we always say, on the day I proposed to my wife. They’re sister and brother and were found in a Dumpster.”

The indoors cats got out on the evening of Feb. 4 from the couple’s Berkley Street home, a block from Canada Way and Imperial St. but only Bear returned.

The couple searched the neighbourhood, put up posters and contacted animal shelters.

Oakes, who runs International K-9 Search and Rescue Services in Longview, Wash., brought Willow up last Thursday and immediately found Luna’s trail, which led through a nearby school, up Canada Way to New Westminster Quay and along the railway tracks, said Hoare.

He said the search was called off when it got too expensive.

“Our best guess is that it was a transient who picked her up and put her in his cart,” added Hoare.

“For the first week, Bear as not eating much at all, just wandering around the house crying a lot. He’ll sniff around the spot where Luna used to sleep, cry and bit and fall asleep right there.”

Oakes said that whoever took the cat knew the city and took short cuts around schools and across railway tracks.

“It’s probably someone that’s lonely,” he said. “They may keep the cat, take it back or dump it.”