They lost their cat in K-Country this summer. But last week, a remote camera gave them hope

Snuggling up with his family in Winnipeg, Gustophe the cat looks pretty good.

He's a little skinny, according to his owner, Jody Hudey, but he's healthy, he's clean and he's his usual happy self.

It's pretty surprising, considering the six-year-old house cat spent the past two months living in the Kananaskis Country wilderness.

"Aside from being a really good hunter and being black so he could probably really hide from predators, I think he must have had a really good hiding place," Hudey said in an interview with The Homestretch. 

"And his will to get home."

Gustophe slipped away from Hudey and her 10-year-old son, Dolphis Seguin, during a stay in late August at the Spray Lakes West Campground, about 110 kilometres west of Calgary.

It was a particularly chilly evening, so Hudey decided to take Gustophe out of his kennel, where he normally slept, and bring him into her sleeping bag. She attached him to his harness and his leash, wrapping it around her hand, before drifting off to sleep.

When they woke up, Gustophe was gone.

"He had squeezed out through a little hole in the screen that he had made bigger," Hudey said.

"We got up and then immediately we started searching barefoot around the campsite looking for him, and we couldn't find him anywhere."

For the next four days, Hudey and her son walked all around the campsite looking for any clue of Gustophe's whereabouts. They spoke to other campers, hung up signs and spoke with local authorities, but no one had seen a trace of the cat.

"We ended up just having to go home without him, which was absolutely heartbreaking. But, you know, we had to get back to school and work," she said.

The family took their search to social media, posting to groups throughout Canmore and Calgary, just in case someone had picked up Gustophe while visiting the area.

The messages didn't lead to the cat, but they did attract some help.