Anyone who has owned a cat knows they often climb inside cars or near car engines.
That means you have to check under the hood and other places every time you leave the house, just to make sure they’re not planning to be a stowaway.
But a 2,300-mile trip? That may be unprecedented.
But that’s exactly what happened to “Kitty Bitty,” a 3-year-old cat from South Georgia who disappeared in July and then traveled across the country in a Pepsi truck before arriving in California.
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And thanks to Riverside County Animal Services and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Kitty Bitty and his owner, Pooler resident Teresa Cameron, were reunited Friday after a flight home to Savannah.
“Nobody can believe it,” Cameron told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about her pet’s odyssey. “You never know with a cat, but I didn’t expect him to be in California.”
The cat was accompanied home by Therese Holmes, part of ASPCA’s relocation team. The flight was paid for by the ASPCA with assistance from donations by Riverside County Animal Services employees, according to spokesman John Welsh.
Kitty Bitty was discovered earlier this month running around at a Pepsi distribution center near Los Angeles. No one knows how long he had been there.
Luckily, he was wearing a rabies tag around his neck with his owner’s and veterinarian’s information.
Soon after, Cameron received a call.
“I was like, ‘OK, where are you?’ He said, ‘Riverside, California.’ I said, ‘Excuse me?’” Cameron recalled.
So the Pepsi employee contacted the local animal services department — and the grand plan to get Kitty Bitty back home began to take shape.
“We have no idea what this cat has been through the last six months,” Riverside County Animal Services Officer John Hergenreder said on video. “He’s still standing, he’s strong, and he’s going home.”
Cameron, who said her cat vanished on the Fourth of July, possibly spooked by fireworks, assumed she would have to do most of the heavy lifting with transportation costs.
Turns out, she was wrong.
“I asked, ‘Any idea how to get a cat home?’” she said.
Welsh said the dehydrated cat has received plenty of food, veterinary observation and care at their facility in Jurupa Valley.
But the cross-country flight still had to be worked out. Who would accompany the animal?
That’s where ASPCA’s Holmes comes in. Battling the expected holiday crowds, she departed Los Angeles International Airport on Friday morning and had a stopover in North Carolina before finally making it to Georgia.
“He needs to get back to his owners, especially before Christmas,” Holmes said before leaving California. “He’s a special guy, pretty tough to make it this far. He went through a lot.
“I’m pretty choked up about it.”
Cameron met Holmes at the Savannah airport late Friday afternoon for the long-awaited reunion. Pooler is about 250 miles from Atlanta.
“We are leaving the airport now,” Cameron texted. “So happy!!”
Once Kitty Bitty — named by Cameron’s 5-year-old daughter, Ava, after he was adopted as a kitten — is back in Pooler, he will notice a new resident: the family got a Golden Retriever in the past six months.
“I’m just glad he’s OK,” Cameron said. “I’m so grateful they took good care of him.”
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