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- A sphynx cat belonging to the Lockwood family was found injured on the shoulder of I-215 after being missing for several days.
- A Reddit post helped Lockwood locate Rocky, who was discovered with bruises and lacerations but no internal injuries or broken bones.
- The circumstances around how Rocky ended up on the highway remain unclear.
WEST JORDAN — A family is grateful their pet cat is safe after a bystander found it lying on the shoulder of I-215 last week.
"He is very sweet, very cuddly," said Ashley Lockwood about her sphynx cat Rocky.
Rocky has been with Lockwood and her family since 2013.
"He's definitely silly. He loves to purr. He talks a lot," she said.
On Oct. 8, Lockwood said she noticed his food had not been touched, nor had she heard him purr at all that day. Lockwood said her family searched for Rocky and continued to so do for several days.
"It was definitely nerve-racking. Sphynx cats are very environmentally sensitive," she said. "So, being outside at night is a little too much for him to handle."
On Oct. 12, Lockwood said a friend had found a post on Reddit with a photo of a sphynx cat on I-215 indicating that it had fallen or was tossed out of a window.
"I opened it, and my heart just dropped," she said. "I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, that's him.'"
Uncertainty over what took place
How exactly the cat ended up there is still a mystery.
"It's hard not having any hard evidence, no dashcam or any, you know, footage or anything that's going to tell us that this is exactly what happened to him," Lockwood said.
Rocky was taken to a vet in Cottonwood Heights who checked his microchip and confirmed it was him.
"The vet was saying that his bruises were so bad and so quickly forming that it was apparent that he had fallen from a height out of a vehicle," Lockwood said.
Rocky had lacerations on his behind and his hip and had his pads wrapped up. Thankfully, Rocky had no internal bleeding or broken bones.
"I can't fathom how any human being could ever do this to an animal," Lockwood said.
She is unsure if someone acted maliciously but is grateful to have her four-legged friend home safe.
"It's just incredible how quickly he's just bounced back," she said.
