COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — A Utah family is asking for the public's help following their family cat, Rocky, being found injured on Interstate 215 in Cottonwood Heights.
According to Rocky's owner, Ashley Lockwood, Rocky went missing on October 8. She says that he is an indoor cat and the family thinks he got spooked and ran away. That's when they turned to social media for help finding him.
On October 12, a friend of the family reached out following seeing a post on social media showing a gray sphynx cat on the freeway scared and injured. Lockwood would confirm that was Rocky.
According to the family friend, someone saw Rocky while traveling on I-215. Originally, they believed he may have jumped from a car and that the people would return to get him but they never did. They also theorized someone may have thrown Rocky from a car on the road.
The original social media poster would later clarify that they never saw Rocky be thrown from a vehicle but in their haste to get the word out assumed that's how Rocky ended up on the road.
Eventually, Rocky was taken to the vet. There Rocky needed stitches on his foot where there was a puncture wound. He also had a broken tooth and lots of road rash.
Following that vet trip, which has cost the family around $4,000, Lockwood says Rocky's condition is improving, "He's getting better every day. He got his voice back. He yells at me for not putting food down fast enough."
The family says they are happy to have Rocky home and have started a GoFundMe to help cover the veterinarian costs. "He is content cuddling in his blanket with my 13-year-old girl. But when she's gone he has to stay in a kennel to rest, scab up and heel," Lockwood explained.
Lockwood says the family has reached out to police to report the incident. FOX 13 News has contacted Utah Highway Patrol but have not heard back.
