Kid's Query on Missing Pet: 'Why Did You Mail My Cat?'

No worries, Baloo is back home safe after accidentally being shipped to Montreal in a box
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2018 8:39 AM CST
Mom Thought She Was Mailing Tire Rims. She Mailed a Cat
Check all boxes for curious pets before sending thm out.   (Getty Images/ufokim)

For four days, Baloo was missing from her family's Nova Scotia home. The feline is now back, but not before she took a 1,500-mile round trip, half of it in a box. Jacqueline Lake tells the CBC that when her family's tabby cat first vanished, she suspected he'd slipped out the front door when her kids went to school one morning. After an exhaustive search around the neighborhood, however, another nagging thought entered Lake's mind: She'd shipped tire rims to a friend in Alberta on Dec. 6 and now wondered if Baloo had crawled inside one of the boxes before she sealed it. Sure enough, the following Monday, four days after Baloo disappeared, a call came in from the Purolator courier company, which said the cat had emerged in Montreal. Purolator tapped the local SPCA, which managed to tie Baloo to his family in Dartmouth.

Volunteers with an animal rescue and transport company stepped up to drive Baloo all the way back home on Saturday. Lake, who now recalls one of the boxes she'd sent out was 10 pounds heavier than the others (she chalked it up to a defect with the rim), marvels that Baloo was able to sneak into the box without her noticing and stay so quiet during the mailing process. "The cat never made a sound," she says, per Global News. "I'm telling you, he was in stealth mode." Lake says the SPCA treated Baloo "like royalty" and has microchipped him in case he ever finds himself outside the Dartmouth area again. Lake's daughter is glad he's now back home, but when they found out what had happened, she had one question for her mom: "Why did you mail my cat?" (This isn't the first time a cat has gone postal.)

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