I’m sure you’ve heard a few stowaway stories in your lifetime. I have, but this one may have them all beat. It’s about a fluffy white cat named Ziggy who recently stunned cargo workers in England when he jumped out of a container after a 17-day sea voyage of more than 2,000 miles from Israel to Britain.
Amazingly, Ziggy survived the journey and is now appearing on the front page of dozens of international newspapers (must have been a slow news day). According to a local animal charity workers, Ziggy (so named by the people who discovered him) was starving and dehydrated when workers at a warehouse in the northwestern town of Whitworth discovered him a week ago.
The dock workers who initially found Ziggy told news reporters that the cat fled from them when they opened the container. The workers said that Ziggy hid for more than five hours before animal charity officers discovered him by a pool of water. The animal charity workers told reporters they were able to lure Ziggy to them with a plate of tuna.
“I think he was scared to death,” an officer with charity the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals told news reporters. “He’d traveled all that way and got to a strange country, and ran for his life.”
Once Ziggy was secured, local trading standards officers traced the route he took and determined that his journey began at a factory in northern Israel, on Halloween, when a container was sealed and taken to a local port for shipment. The container housing Ziggy arrived in Liverpool, northern England, 10 days later and was taken to a warehouse, where workers had expected to unpack a cargo of plastic goods… and instead out popped Ziggy.
“When the container was finally opened, we got a real surprise when this fluffy white cat shot out,” one dock worker said. “I think it has probably used some of its nine lives.” (Frankly, I was amazed to hear the cat’s fur was not matted and falling out from being so dehydrated.)
So, yes, this stowaway story has a happy ending. Animal charity workers told reporters that Ziggy has been tended by veterinarians and is now being kept at an animal quarantine as officials attempt to see if Ziggy is a stray or if he has owners in Israel. If he does, that would be a reunion really worth front page coverage.