Victoria Walgrave-Charlson and Ophelia the ragdoll cat met when the owner was 14 and the pet was 3.
They had six years together at the family home near 26th Street and Sierra Circle before Ophelia vanished one day.
Five years later, Walgrave-Charlson tragically died. When her family put together a final tribute, they emphasized that the 25-year-old with long hair and piercing blue eyes loved all animals but had a special fondness for cats.
As it turns out, cats apparently have guardian angels, and time and distance can’t dislodge the love between people and pets. Her family believes Victoria has ensured that Ophelia is back where the cat belongs, with her parents Greta and Patrick Bruggeman and her siblings.
Greta Bruggeman knows this story might sound unbelievable. But not only is Ophelia back home, she has returned to bring joy to a family that has faced heart-wrenching grief in recent years. Two of the three children that once played with and petted Ophelia have died. But the Bruggemans’ 6-year-old twins now have a cat to call their own.
“This was a childhood cat for my older kids that now is going to be a childhood cat for the twins,” Bruggeman said. “To me, it’s just a very spiritual connection for all my kids.”
The tale of this wandering cat likely will never be pieced together entirely, unless Ophelia someday can speak in more than mews and purrs. Gail Bunch of Lead, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, can add some to the story, however, because it was her rescue group that took in Ophelia after she was brought to the shelter by a quartet of young sisters who love to come in and see the cats.
In 20 years of rescue, Bunch has witnessed only one other reunion of long-lost cat and owner, but it doesn’t compare to Ophelia’s story.
“It makes you cry,” said Bunch of Twin City Animal Shelter. “And it warms your heart. There aren’t always happy stories like that.”
Victoria was living with her family in Indiana when she found online information about a cat named Ophelia that needed a home. Ophelia, a ragdoll with fluffy fur, the breed’s famed sociability and blue eyes that echoed Victoria’s own, couldn’t stay with her first family. They ran a small breeding business, and Ophelia was so attractive to the main stud cat that he wanted her and only her.
When Victoria saw Ophelia, she was so bewitched that Greta and Patrick Bruggeman agreed to add the cat to their mixture of pets and kids. That included Victoria’s younger brothers, Caleb and Jackson.
Greta and Patrick call the Sioux Falls area home, and when they returned in 2010, they settled on a micro-acreage on the city’s east side. That offered enough space for Ophelia, or “Phi Phi,” and another ragdoll cat, Finnegan, and two dogs, Sadie and Charlie. The cats mostly stayed inside, and when they were outdoors Sadie, a Labrador retriever, served as their protector.
One day, however, Ophelia was gone.
Despite being a cul-de-sac, the Bruggemans’ street was heavily traveled. In addition, cars often would park just so the inhabitants could admire the view. The only explanations the Bruggemans had for Ophelia’s disappearance was that a coyote had snatched her — or someone on two legs had claimed her unlawfully.
“I just had a feeling she was stolen,” Bruggeman said. “Sadie was really protective. Coyotes wouldn’t come up in our yard because of our dog. That was my theory, that someone would take her.”
Ophelia had a microchip inserted under her skin containing information to identify her owner. The days passed, however, and no one called to report they had found a ragdoll cat with mittens and a seal point face outlining her features in dark fur. Ragdoll cats are not as aloof as some breeds, and when you pick them up, they go limp like a ragdoll. That could be irresistible to someone who recognized the breed.
The Bruggemans already had gone through the grief of losing a son. Caleb, the older of their two boys, was 15 when he died in 2013. Ophelia’s loss cannot be compared to that, of course, but her disappearance the following year was just one more blow.
Then, in 2019, Victoria died. She was living in Windom, Minnesota, at the time. The Bruggemans’ youngest sons, twins Lucas and Dylan, were about 4 years old. They had never met their brother Caleb, and now their sister was gone.
The following year, the Bruggemans decided to make a change. Their son, Jackson, had enrolled at South Dakota State University, and the twins were nearing kindergarten age. They moved to Maui, Hawaii, where two of Greta’s sisters and her only brother live. All that remained of Ophelia was memories and photos.
Or so they thought.
More than 3,500 miles away, this cat’s tale was about to take an unexpected turn. In August 2021, Bunch at the shelter in Lead welcomed four familiar visitors, the Loken sisters: Oreyna, 10; Tikka, 8; Cabot, 6; and Ackley, 4. Bunch knows the sisters well. They like to pet the cats waiting there for new homes. This time, however, Oreyna was carrying a cat in her arms.
Ophelia had been living on the hill behind their house for about a year, the sisters said. A woman who had lived in a nearby house had moved, Bunch realized, and while she had never seen the cat on her near-daily drives, she surmised the woman had been taking care of it.
But now the cat, plainly an older animal, wasn’t faring so well. Her fur had some mats in it, and it obviously was difficult for her to eat. Abscessed teeth were causing her pain. And she was so tired.
“She was the sweetest cat,” Bunch said. “When she first came, she kind of relaxed, and she slept quite a bit. When we got her antibiotics and she started feeling better, she would wander around the shelter and let us brush her.”
Bunch checked to see if the stray had a microchip. When that was confirmed, she contacted the registering agency, who said the cat had been chipped eight years earlier. Bunch received three phone numbers to call. She wasn’t optimistic — after eight years, what were the chances the numbers still would be valid?
Well, quite good as it turned out. Before Greta Bruggeman even got her message, her mother-in-law was on the phone to Patrick Bruggeman, sharing the good news.
“I instantly started bawling, I could not believe it,” Greta Bruggeman said. “It just made me feel such a strong connection to my daughter, Victoria. It was very emotional for me. Victoria gave the cat a ton of attention, but I’m the mom of the house, the one all these pets follow along.”
The Bruggemans looked at bringing Ophelia to Hawaii, where she could meet Lucas and Dylan and their new pet, Buddy the Jack Russell terrier. Finn, Sadie and Charlie all had died in the interim. Travel restrictions prevented putting Ophelia on a plane, however, so the Bruggemans chose the next best option: They’ve moved back to Sioux Falls.
It wasn’t only for Ophelia, of course. Greta Bruggeman said she was lonesome for Sioux Falls. A Realtor with Hegg Realtors, she had been working long distance but now can cut even a virtual commute by miles.
In the meantime, Ophelia traveled by car from Lead to Heron Lake, Minnesota, where Greta Bruggeman’s uncle, Dean Lohre, tended to her needs. Last Monday, Ophelia once again strolled through the Bruggemans’ door, home again.
“She’s an old lady now, but she still looks pretty,” Greta Bruggeman said. “Her weight’s back on, she’s following us everywhere, purring and pawing and giving me kisses. I think she remembers me. I hope so. I wish she could tell the story.”
Bunch, too, would like to hear Ophelia’s story. For now, however, she’s happy to have a second multiyear reunion story to share. The first was a cat that had gone missing six years earlier. It was found by a woman who kept it until she could no longer care for it. When brought to the Twin City Animal Shelter, it was identified through a chip and reunited with its rightful owners.
Jackson Bruggeman traveled down from Brookings over the weekend to renew his friendship with Ophelia. The Bruggeman reunion isn’t quite complete — Buddy the dog eventually will make his way here from Hawaii.
But until then, the family has Ophelia the cat, bringing the past to the present with a bright future ahead.
