Cats 101: Emily the Accidental Europhile Sails to France

11/10/2009

A few weeks back I shared the story of Cody, the transcontinental kitty who inadvertently shipped himself via UPS from Dallas to Chicago when he jumped unnoticed into a box of cushy chiropractic supplies, ending up in the office of the shocked and bewildered package recipient. Covering nearly 1,000 miles in his unplanned junket, I believed that Cody undoubtedly deserved the feline frequent flier prize. That is, until I watched the season premiere of Animal Planet's Cats 101 last weekend and learned of Emily, the stowaway kitty from Wisconsin who inadvertently traveled 4200 miles by land and sea and ended up in FRANCE. Yes, you heard right - le pays de France. Mon dieu!

Emily's owner Lesley McElhiney discovered that her cat Emily went prowling around a paper warehouse near home in Wisconsin and ended up in a cargo container that went by ship across the Atlantic Ocean and was subsequently trucked to the city of Nancy, a city in northeastern France near the border with Germany.

Employees at a French lamination company found Emily in the container, checked her pet id tags and called Emily's veterinarian. Thank God she was wearing her tags! Emily flew back home to the warm embrace of her family via first class ... a happy ending to a crazy story!

For more crazy cat stories, adventures and misadventures of our favorite felines, check out Cats 101!