Kitten from Hawaii JUNCTION CITY, Kan. >> The worker knew something was wrong.
survives a month
in shipping crate
Associated Press
Mewing was coming from a moving crate that left Hawaii more than a month before.
What followed was a story of survival that found a family of new Kansas residents reunited with a lost pet.
An 8-month-old male kitten, named Lilo, had been trapped in the crate from early December until he was freed on Thursday. He had lost more than half of his normal body weight but was given a significant chance to survive.
"We are dumbfounded. It is a little miracle," said Lilo's owner, Army Sgt. 1st Class Brody Hilstock.
Hilstock moved from the Aliamanu military housing on Oahu before his transfer to Fort Riley in Kansas. He and his family packed up their belongings on Dec. 2-3, but they could not find Lilo, born around the time Disney's Hawaii-themed film "Lilo and Stitch" premiered.
As it turned out, the kitten had crawled into a set of box springs. Lilo did not react even when movers prompted by the Hilstocks' concerns pounded on the crates.
On Wednesday, as the crates passed through Denver, a North American Van Lines worker heard Lilo's weak mewing. He alerted his manager, who contacted another company worker at Fort Riley.
"We could hear him but we couldn't find him," said the manager, Linda McNeal.
When the multicolored kitten was finally lifted out of his prison in Kansas, it was taken to Junction City Animal Hospital to begin treatment for starvation and dehydration.
