The $2K Cat

Maybe you can't put a price on love, but a woman has staked $2,000 on the safe return of her cat Casper.

"It is a lot of money," conceded Vanessa Lockwood. But there is a reason Casper is worth that kind of coin.

"My mother bought the cat for my grandmother when she was 93," Lockwood explained, telling how her grandmother suffered from bone cancer and only lived two years after making the acquaintance of Casper.

"My mom associates the cat as the last living part of her mother," Lockwood said.

Casper likely strayed from the Lockwoods' home in River Bluff estates on Easter night. Lockwood said she was carrying things in from her car and believes Casper may have slipped out the open garage door.

"He's a completely indoor cat," Lockwood said.

"He has no hunting skills, no claws, no nothing," she added.

Lockwood said Casper is a friendly, all-white 8-year-old cat with a flat face. He has been microchipped and was 15 pounds when he disappeared.

Casper suffers from allergies and other medical problems that require treatment.

The $2,000 reward can be claimed "no questions asked," Lockwood said on the Casper Kitty Come Home Facebook page. Anyone with information is asked to call 815-953-0291.

Despite Casper's lack of claws or experience in the outside world, Lockwood is holding out hope that he is all right.

"Everybody keeps telling me, 'Cats will be fine,'" she said. "I'm like, 'I hope so.'"