[Vision2020] Hiding Spot Becomes Riding Spot (cat story)

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (March 13, 2009) Spokesman Review.

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Hiding spot becomes riding spot
Cat makes it home after weeks inside resold couch
 
The used couch that Vickie Mendenhall bought for $27 came with a furry 
surprise – a calico cat who’d hidden inside it for more than two weeks. 

On Thursday afternoon, the feline was reunited with her overjoyed owner 
who saw a media report about the cat’s improbable saga.

Mendenhall, who bought the couch at Value Village for her new home on 
North Madison Street in Spokane, said she and the other residents had been 
hearing a faint meowing, but they could never find the source. Every time 
they searched for a cat, the sound stopped. 

“We thought it was coming through the vents into the house,” said the 32-
year-old mother, who happens to work in the cat room at SpokAnimal 
C.A.R.E. Her son, Tyler, 9, theorized the house was haunted by a cat.

Then, on Tuesday, Mendenhall’s boyfriend, Chris Lund, was watching TV and 
felt something move under him, inside the couch. He pulled the couch away 
from the wall, lifted it up and voila! There was the cat, who’d apparently 
crawled through a small hole. She was hungry and dehydrated.

Mendenhall called Value Village, but the staff there had no information 
about who’d donated the couch. She took the cat to SpokAnimal, so it could 
recover, and contacted media outlets in hope of finding the owner.

The strategy worked – Bob Killion, of Spokane, went to SpokAnimal to claim 
the cat after an acquaintance saw the story and alerted him. Killion had 
donated a couch Feb. 19, and 9-year-old cat Callie disappeared about the 
same time.

Killion, a retired Air Force master sergeant, said he was diagnosed with a 
brain tumor in May 2001 and given a year and a half to live. He credits 
Callie, along with his other cat, Tiger, and his Pomeranian, Lola, for 
helping him through that difficult time. 

Mendenhall said the cat seemed glad to be rescued. “When we got her out, 
she was giving me that look: ‘Thanks for getting me out of there.’”

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When Vickie Mendenhall bought her used couch, Callie came free.
(This is one pissed off cat)
http://tinyurl.com/aabu2j
  
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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
Join us at The First Annual Intolerista Wingding, April 17th, featuring 
Roy Zimmerman and Jeanne McHale.  For details go to . . .

http://www.MoscowCares.com/Wingding
 
Seeya
there.

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