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SEDALIA, Mo. (April 29, 7:53 p.m. PDT) - A cat
was hungry and dirty but otherwise OK after hitching a 400-mile ride from
Indianapolis to Sedalia on an 8-inch beam underneath a tractor-trailer.
The male Siamese cat was discovered Sunday
after Chris Markley, a truck driver from Springdale, Ark., noticed a woman
trying to flag him down. He pulled his rig into a parking lot and the woman
pointed out a cat sitting on the fifth wheel frame under the trailer of his
truck.
Markley told police the last time he had
stopped before reaching Sedalia was at a truck stop off Interstate 65 south
of Indianapolis.
Marilyn Bogard, animal control officer for
the Sedalia Police Department, took the cat to the animal shelter Monday
afternoon. The cat was only a little worse for wear with a case of the
sniffles and a coating of grease.
"Poor baby. He's a sweetheart," said Bogard
as the cat rubbed its head on her cheek, leaving a smear of grease. "He's
well fed. He's just hungry because you ride from Indianapolis to here, and
you'd be hungry too."
Nothing was holding the cat onto the 8-inch
beam or protecting if from falling to the asphalt, according to a police
report. The neutered cat is estimated to be six or seven years old.
"We've had them before get into the back of
trucks, but to ride on something that narrow for that long a distance,
that's pretty unusual," Bogard said.
Animal control officers in Indiana will help
with the search for the cat's owners. If they don't come forward, the cat
will be put up for adoption.
"We'll find him a good home, at least that's
what we hope for," Bogard said. "We always like a good happy ending." |
