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http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/a...606270310/1007
Cat's journey takes him near death
By Ashley Matthews
Free Press Staff Writer
June 27, 2006
CHARLOTTE -- If cats have nine lives, then Coukit, a 10-year-old Abyssinian, surely used eight of them during his 17-day, 3,000 mile voyage across the country.
Coukit's story began in late March, when his owner, 91-year-old Elizabeth Storey, began her move from Sacramento, Calif., to Charlotte, where she lives in the Champlain Valley Cohousing project. As the movers walked into Storey's house, Coukit dashed out the door and disappeared.
"I was so sad that I wished I'd never tried to move," Storey said. "He is very important in my life. At 91, you have almost no active friends left, and he is my closest friend."
The movers left and Storey, her daughter Larilee Suiter, family and friends searched for the cat late into the night. The next morning, Storey and Suiter flew from California to Vermont, leaving neighbors and friends to continue the search for Coukit, but they never found him.
Seventeen days later, Storey's belongings arrived in Charlotte. When workers unloaded Storey's box spring, it smelled of urine.
"When I initially realized the cat had been in the truck, I was brokenhearted," Suiter said. "I was sure the cat had not survived. Thirty seconds later, I was flabbergasted to see two amber eyes peering out of the dark, like they were saying, 'Where have you been?'"
When Coukit was pulled from the box spring, Suiter described him as "fur hanging off a skeleton." The cat was severely dehydrated and anemic, and had lost three of his usual eight pounds of weight. Suiter was terrified the little cat wouldn't make it.
"Coukit has been my mother's companion for a decade and provides continuity for her as she moves from her former life to this life," Suiter said.
A week later, Coukit was discharged by the veterinarian. It's been a long, hard recovery, but the cat is back to normal. For Storey, his example of perseverance is inspirational.
"That he survived for 17 days in a flat box with no food or drink is a miracle," Storey said. "The spirit that would keep anything alive that long -- it's a model. We should all be that strong."
Have a Charlotte story idea? Contact Ashley Matthews at 651-4811 or [email protected].
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