Lost Florida Cat Turns Up In Suitcase In Texas

[Family Ties Forever!]

I'm glad the kitty is ok. Poor thing.

link

Lost Fla. Cat Turns Up In Suitcase In Texas Stranger Finds Cat After Mistakenly Taking Wrong Bag

Posted: 12:44 pm CST January 23, 2008
Updated: 12:49 pm CST January 23, 2008

Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. -- Some kitty math: How many lives did little tabby Gracie Mae use up when she crawled into her owner's suitcase, went through an airport X-ray machine, got loaded onto a plane, thrown onto a baggage belt and mistakenly picked up by a stranger far from home?

"She's got to be at four or five now," Seth Levy said after his 10-month-old pet was returned Sunday night by a kind stranger who went home to Fort Worth, Texas, with the wrong bag and Gracie inside to boot.

The last time Levy's wife, Kelly, saw Gracie was before she took her husband to the airport.

The 24-year-old went back to her house in Palm Beach Gardens late Friday to find the bottom step, where Gracie would usually be waiting, empty.

She tore the house apart looking for the cat, who had been spayed just days before. She and her dad took out bathroom tiles and part of a cabinet to check a crawl space and papered the neighborhood with "lost cat" signs.

Then she got a phone call.

"Hi, you're not going to believe this, but I am calling from Fort Worth, Texas, and I accidentally picked up your husband's luggage. And when I opened the luggage, a cat jumped out," Kelly Levy quoted the caller saying.

Rob Carter said he made it home with the suitcase before realizing it wasn't his -- and there was a big surprise inside.

"I went to unpack and saw some of the clothes and saw it wasn't my suitcase," he said. "I was going to close it, and a kitten jumped out and ran under the bed. I screamed like a little girl."

Carter said that he eventually was able to get the cat to come out from under the bed.

"In the morning, I got close enough to see its collar and the phone number on it," he said. "So I called the number and got a hold of the crying wife of the traveler."

The tabby made the 1,300-mile trip home on an $80 plane ticket. Carter said he considered keeping the cat before he knew she had a home.

"We were going to name it Suitcase," he said.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[Holly]

Glad that kitty is ok to and nothing happen to it... i love animals.. i would take care of any animal in a heart beat.

[Janice]

That's a heartwarming end to a story, that could have ended bad. I'd go crazy. I read a story once where a cat was in a crate in an airplane. The cat's owner was taking a flight. The cat got out, and nobody could find it. It was inside the plane, but that could of been anywhere.

The airline wanted to take off anyway, and to hell with the cat. The owner went wild and called the press, and it become a big story. She refused to leave without her cat. They searched and searched and finally found her cat. Sorry if I hijacked your thread, Jenny. Your story reminded me of that.

[Nighthawk76]

I'm glad to hear that the cat turned up safe and sound.

[catlover79]

Wow!! I'm so happy kitty is OK, too.

[AB]

Cats can certainly get in some odd places. Glad she's safe!

[TripperFan]

Originally Posted by annball1957

Cats can certainly get in some odd places. Glad she's safe!

At least one or more of my cats crawl into suitcases when I'm packing. I end up having to make sure the door is closed. Guess kitty slid in when nobody was looking and fell asleep !

Not great going thru the x-ray machine and being in an unheated area of the cargo hold. Good thing the plane was just going from Florida to Texas without stopovers, etc. Rather than Suitcase, I would have considered Samsonite.

[80sTrivia]

That's an incredible story. I'm glad the cat made it home safely!

[OH Nuts!]

Thank God for kind caring people--I'm really glad the sweet little kitty made it home safe. She sure did use up some of her lives.