Then on Waitangi Day, after many sightings of Echo, he was found living rough in a drain on Opaki Rd near Fourth St. He was rescued after a small drama involving a fishing net and a 20-litre container of water and Mr Turley diving into bushes and being scratched.
"Thanks to the Times-Age there were lots of eyes and ears out there. It worked. It's a fabulous outcome."
Mr Turley said Geoff Ward and his daughter, Amy, saw Echo and rang them and he spent Wednesday night calling out to no avail, until he caught Echo yesterday.
"He was in the storm water drain ... a lady working at Hansell's saw him and friends of ours driving past saw him."
He initially saw another cat and thought they were following the wrong scent.
"I was put off by the cat I saw ... we were in two minds because we thought 'what are the odds of it being him?"' he said.
Then he saw Echo run into the drain and tried to rescue him but he ran up the bank and shot back into the drain.
"It was unreal."
Mr Ward brought a fishing net and Mr Turley a container of water. Blocking off the drain, they tipped the water down, flushing the cat out.
Echo escaped again and Mr Turley chased him, diving into bushes and hanging on tight.
"I leaped on him ... he was ripping me up but there was no way I was going to let go of him."
The Ward family didn't want the reward but the Haglund-Turley family insisted. "The deserved it."
Meanwhile, the Haglund-Turley children, Sophia, 9, Quinn, 7, Alexi, 5, and Reid, 4, along with mum, Sarah, are rapt to have their pet home. It was Mrs Haglund-Turley's birthday yesterday.
Echo spent the first night home on Sophia's bed, with her talking to him all night, she said.
"My dad is amazing. It's so cool having Echo home," she said.
Cattery owner Barbara O'Byrne is also pleased the cat has been found.
"It's wonderful news. It's exactly one month since he left ... in my heart of hearts I knew it would go home or be close to home," she said.
The family thanked the community for keeping an eye out for Echo.
