Stowaway cat gets trip home
Published: May 23, 2006
Microchip helped identify its owner…
He couldn’t go first class, but Odie the stowaway cat went home to Colorado just the same.
The black and white cat who hitched a ride to Troy in a Uhaul moving van last month was scheduled to fly home to Denver on Monday night with a cat lover who lives near Odie’s family.
“I’m nuts about cats,” said East St. Louis native Mary Ann Bogner of West Minster, Colo.
Bogner was visiting her mother, Ruth Waldron, in Fairview Heights when she heard about Odie.
Bogner said she pampers her own cat, Marbles, with phone answering machine messages while she’s away.
“I left a message for Marbles that we might have an overnight guest, and she’d better be nice to Odie,” Bogner said.
Bogner was one of about 30 people who called Cindy’s Critter Camp in Maryville after Odie became a media star last week.
Cindy Kushel identified Odie and his owner through a microchip implanted in his skin.
“This just goes to prove that everyone should get their critter microchipped,” Kushel said.
Odie is the pet of a 7-year-old boy, Kyle Endsley, of Arvada, Colo., a Denver suburb fewer than 5 miles from Bogner’s home. She talked to Kyle before she left for Denver.
“The cat is just everything to him,” Bogner said.
Bogner picked up Odie at Cindy’s Critter Camp on Monday before cat’s 90-minute flight to Denver in the cargo hold of an airplane. The airline refused Bogner’s request of keep Odie with her in a pet carrier in the passenger cabin.
“They said more people are allergic to cats,” Bogner said.
Kushel now is taking donations to off-set Odie’s $100 airfare and boarding costs since she took him in.
Bogner said she sought advice about Odie’s flight safety from a friend who is a member of the Dumb Friends League, a Denver area humane group. She was surprised to learn Odie’s owner adopted him from the league’s shelter.
Bogner said Kyle’s mother told her she is moving to a new home that doesn’t have a doggie door like the one Odie used for his escape.
Endsley could not be reached for comment Monday.
Troy natives Jill and Todd Fisk lived in Odie’s neighborhood in Colorado. When they arrived in Troy, the discovered Odie in their moving van.
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