Nile, the cat featured in the Reporter for retrieving mail, went missing last week in the Mercerwood neighborhood. His owner, Mindy Stern, wrote to the Reporter that Nile was found on Friday, March 30.

A few hours ago, we got a call from a neighbor in response to the fliers we distributed to all the homes in the range we knew that Nile patrolled. They just noticed a cat huddled next to their neighbors’ garage, unmoving. We rushed over and confirmed that it was, indeed, Nile.

He looked very peaceful, fully stretched out, but was certainly dead and rigid.

Shlomo (Stern’s husband, who is a veterinarian) examined him and found absolutely no sign of trauma — he must have just laid down and died.

On Sunday, the last day we saw him, we woke up to find our entire front lawn strewn with “gifts” from Nile — dozens of paper scraps, plastic bags, etc.

Shortly after the Reporter ran the article about Nile (October 2010), he came home one day with a very elegant but soaking wet lady’s slip-on shoe, a mule. It was in two-tone leather, with a fancy heel, size 23 1/2, made in Taiwan. When it dried, I tried it on and it fit me perfectly. I jokingly told Nile to bring me the other one, and referred to it as ‘The Cinderella Slipper.’ About four months later, he delivered the matching shoe.

We have no idea where or how he found the shoes, or any of the other things he gifted us. For the past week, every time we came home and saw that outside the house was clean, we knew that Nile was not around.

Thank you for sharing our excitement about this most unusual cat. He will be missed beyond words.