One More Reason Why Cats Rock.

Although we have left our cats alone for a few days at a time, I still doubt that any one of them could successfully compete on an episode of Cat Survivor. They are spoiled and needy and, unfortunately, not that bright.

When a friend sent me this article this morning about a cat who travelled secretly in a suitcase from Florida to Texas (including going the airport X-ray machine and riding the baggage belt) I was pretty impressed. Riding in the suitcase is a new one, accomplished by that little feline Gracie Mae, but when in comes to secret, undercover foreign travel shes still a tabby in training. Here are three other covert-cats who travelled the world and lived to tell about it:

Emily traveled from Wisconsin to France, remaining undetected in a cargo container in 2005. Adorably, Continental spokesman Philippe Fleury commented, "I don't think she'll drink champagne but I think she will be happy to rest." They then packed her back up in a storage container and shipped her back to her grateful family in Wisconsin, this time with some tuna and a bottle of Perrier. Just kidding, she flew home with mad style in business class, presumably for free.

Another cat-adventurer is Ziggy, a snow-white, kitty who took a 17 day vacation from Israel to Britain. Although most likely more than a little seasick, Ziggy was still alive and fluffy when discovered. At the time of this article in 2006, the Brits were still trying to locate Zig's family in Israel, which I can imagine is partly due to the language barrier. Oh Ziggy, I hope you found your way home!

In 2007 a cat named spice spent 3 weeks crossing the Pacific Ocean in a shipping container traveling with her family's goods moving from Hawaii to San Bernadino, CA. Whats most remarkable is that it takes 3 weeks for a shipping container to travel between Hawaii and California. Spice was a little dehydrated, but a vet prescribed a traditional family recipe of some soup made of chicken broth and marrow. Sick.

Again, I'm pretty surprised that cats survive these sort of things. Just the other night, the History Channel showed a new documentary called Life After People. The awesome 2 hour documentary predicted the future of the Earth if humans were to vanish. Ultimately, the conclusion was that everything we have created would be completely gone in 1000 years--no record of us at all, but that nature would flourish as it had before humans were around. In the documentary the cat did pretty well for itself. The website described the cats fate as such:

Cats - Indoor cats will need to get outside to survive, as after munching on leftover food and drinking melt water from freezers, they will soon run out of provisions. Once outside, cats have a great chance at survival. Because they have generally retained their independent natures and are natural hunters, they will quite easily return to the wild and provide for themselves by hunting birds and rodents. They will, however, have to watch out once predators, such as bobcats, coyotes and wolves, move back into abandoned human neighborhoods.

Good for you, cats! I doubt dogs could survive a three week journey at sea in a storage crate. Now to go home and start teaching Shake, Eli and Monroe some survival skills. I wonder if they would like Tae-Bo?