Update: Heartbroken Family Searches for Bubba the Cat

Update, June 26, 2012: The family has found Bubba, and thanks the community for their help and support.

No other details have been shared at this time. Lindenhurst Patch will update this story if and when more details become available.

Original Story:
Lindenhurst resident Audrey Kogut and her family are upset and worried as they continue to search for their beloved cat named Bubba.

Bubba - a male, black-and-white stray the family rescued seven years ago - went missing for the second time in a week, Kogut told Lindenhurst Patch.

"Someone said they thought they saw him, but I have another black-and-white cat. I'm trying to see if I go by the docks the hour this person says they see him," said Kogut, who's posted signs all over her neighborhood in Venetian Shores and at nearby supermarkets in hopes "someone might see him and grab him for us."

Kogut said Bubba's "extremely friendly and gentle, [and] he comes when you call his name. He's a total mush, [and] he loves people, especially children. He loves sitting next to you for all of your attention and love. We really want him back in our lives, and especially for my niece."

Bubba has become the BFF of Kogut's niece, who's now seven years old, and Kogut said for Halloween two years ago her niece dressed up exactly like her best feline friend.

"He's my niece's buddy since she was little living with her aunt, nana and me," said Kogut, who explained her niece and her mother have had a rough couple of years that have included several deaths in the family.

Bubba, Kogut said, has brought her niece much-needed love and comfort, and is worried.

"Just what this big-hearted child needs is another loss," she said.

Bubba - who came to Kogut's family as a feral stray - originally went missing last Monday, June 18, in the vicinity of Riviera Parkway and Oak Avenue.

He was found okay, but dirty, two days later at a corner lot that's also a boat slip. But after a bath and some rest he ran out the door when Kogut was letting the family's other older cat in for the night.

Kogut hopes he's okay and returns soon.

"I really wish to know where he is...he was always by our side. My niece and the kitten [in the accompanying photo] - who he adopted as his own; they're inseparable - miss him badly," she said.

Kogut and her family are asking fellow residents for their help in finding their beloved kitty, who also has a clipped left ear and a slit in his right ear.

Anyone with information about Bubba should call 631-226-4359 (home phone) and 631-495-0027 (cell phone).