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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 5:07 p.m., Monday, December 22, 2008

Cat survives confinement in storage container

Advertiser Staff

During a move from Hawai'i, a military couple left without their 2-year-old cat who wandered away on moving day.

A new couple moved into the same house, but then immediately found out that the husband was going to be deployed. They rented a storage container on Nov. 4 and packed up their items.

The container went into storage on Nov. 8 at a storage facility near Lagoon Drive.

Last week, Craig Watson, the operations manager of PODS (Portable On Demand Storage), heard a cat meowing.

"I was walking through the warehouse and heard a cat meowing. I could see the cat was locked inside the POD and the weather strip under the door was eaten. It looks like the cat was trying to get out. We pried the door open and lured the cat out with food and water. The cat was really skinny."

"I looked at the history of the container. We delivered the container on Nov. 4 and brought it back on Nov. 8. The container had not been touched or accessed since then."

The Hawaiian Humane Society transferred the cat to the Cat Clinic. The veterinarians are donating their services. The cat was given an intravenous drip to replace fluids and blood tests showed no sign of kidney or liver damage.

Dr. Matt Belcher of the Cat Clinic said, "The cat is doing very well. When she came in, she was very thin, just 5 pounds. She had some worms and fleas, which we are treating but her blood work checked out, no damage to her kidneys. Despite what she's been through, she's very personable."

Since the cat had a microchip, the humane society has been in contact with the owner, who is already on the Mainland.

The cat will be held at the animal shelter and eventually sent to foster care. If the cat is not claimed, it will be put up for adoption.