A miraculous story of survival, three years in the making.Meet Patches, a beautiful Calico that turned up at the ASAP cat shelter last month in Goleta.
Cat Cashes In a Couple of Lives Before Returning to Montecito Home After Debris Flows
With the help of a local couple and animal agencies, Patches the calico is reunited with her owner after disappearing for about three years
Norm Borgatello is reunited with his long-lost cat, Patches, who disappeared in January 2018 during the Montecito debris flows. (Jill Title photo) By Peter Hartmann and Stacey Wright, Noozhawk Contributing Writers
January 9, 2021
| 9:52 p.m.
The year 2020 was tough. Loss, fear, frustration, loneliness and anxiety seemed to dominate thanks in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic and a nation in turmoil.
As the year drew to a close, many people across Santa Barbara County spent New Year’s Eve saying goodbye to the challenging year, finding creative ways to safely end the year on a high note. For one longtime local, Norm Borgatello, the ending of 2020 was not as important as the beginning of a new chapter with his long-lost cat, Patches.