Stowaway cat takes 17-day voyage

LONDON – A fluffy white cat stunned cargo workers in England when it jumped out of a goods container after a 17-day sea voyage of more than 2,000 miles from Israel to Britain, an animal charity said Friday.

The cat nicknamed Ziggy was starving and dehydrated when workers at a warehouse in the northwestern town of Whitworth discovered the unexpected cargo a week ago.

Ziggy fled from the workers when the container was opened and hid for more than five hours.

“I think he was scared to death,” said James Ratcliff, an officer with charity the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “He’d traveled all that way and got to a strange country and ran for his life.”

The animal charity was called to help and officers discovered the cat by a pool of water on the warehouse roof, and they lured it to them with a plate of tuna, Ratcliff said.

Local trading standards officer Colin Barton said Ziggy began his journey at a factory in Afula, northern Israel, on Oct. 31, when a container was sealed and taken to the port of Haifa for shipment.

It arrived in Liverpool, northern England, 10 days later and was taken to the warehouse, where workers had expected to unpack a cargo of plastic goods, he said.

“When the container was finally opened, staff unloading it got a real surprise when this fluffy white cat shot out,” Barton said. “I think it has probably used some of its nine lives.”