DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Dr. Jennifer Brundage holds "Matson" as Tedra Villaroz looks on. Tedra Villaroz runs a Kaneohe cat shelter called Joey's Feline Friends. Matson is the only one of four cats to survive the trans-Pacific trip trapped in a Matson container.

Miracle ‘Matson’
making comeback

The all-but-dead kitten is recovering
thanks to some animal lovers

A kitten in need of donations Tax-deductible donations to pay for the quarantine and care costs for Matson, the kitten who survived 10 days in a shipping container, may be mailed to Companion Animal Hospital, 1090 Keolu Drive, Suite 102, Kailua 96734; or Joey's Feline Friends, P.O. Box 240052, Honolulu, HI 96824-0052.

Matson, a newborn kitten who survived 10 days without food and water in the cold of a Matson shipping container, has probably used up eight of its nine lives, says Tedra Villaroz, founder of Joey's Feline Friends.

The "miracle" kitty has made it through a tenuous six weeks against all odds, says Villaroz, founder of the rescue shelter in Kaneohe.

In late August, a Safeway employee brought Matson, barely alive, in to Kahala Petland, where Villaroz sets up an adoption table on Saturdays.

The employee, who chose to remain anonymous, told Villaroz the container driver "kept hearing noises" from a sealed container that was delivered to Safeway, Villaroz said.

He opened the door and found two dead kittens, one barely breathing (which eventually died), and Matson. After seven freezing days on the ocean, and a few days sitting on the docks under the beating sun, Matson employees kept saying "there's no way" the kitten could have survived, Villaroz said.

"This is a real miracle story ... This is an amazing kitten. Usually they die of cold when they're that little," she said.

The gray and white kitten was so young that she "still had her eyes closed," and weighed six ounces when Villaroz first saw her.

Villaroz and her staff tube- and bottle-fed her the first few days round-the-clock, and kept her warm. She then faced the dilemma of having to quarantine the kitten, flying her back to Oakland, or euthanizing her. She called her friend, Dr. Jenny Brundage, who works at the Companion Animal Hospital in Kailua, which works with the animal quarantine station to take care of debilitated animals.

Brundage has been caring for Matson since late August, and the kitten now weighs two pounds.

"She was ice cold, and near dead when they found her, but she had a very strong will to survive," Brundage said. "She survived on essentially her own reserves. She should've died of dehydration but she didn't,"

A collection has been started to pay the kitten's quarantine fees, which are $20 per day for 120 days.

"We're not worried about not coming up with the money ... because we're not doing this to get paid, we're doing this because it's the right thing to do. Feline Friends said it would be responsible for her even if no one comes up with the money," Brundage said.

And there's already a long line of people who've helped with her care asking to adopt her after she finishes her quarantine period.