Cat Survives Shipping Mishap
On Monday, Oct. 5, Cody the cat went missing in Dallas, TX. His frantic owners couldn't figure out where he'd gone - until they received a call from a chiropractor two days later and 950 away.
Cody the cat, and his owners, 9-year-old Natalie Bennett, her mom Marie Webster, and her dad, Darryl Bennett, shared their cat's story with Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez.
The family flew in from Dallas and was allowed to have Cody sit on their lap. He trembled the whole way, but he was more relaxed on set.
Natalie was the first to notice that Cody went missing. Cody usually greets her when she gets home from school and follows her around the house.
"I know he likes boxes because one day I was walking in my mom's room and I saw little eyes and I opened up the box and he was in the box," Natalie said.
"They (cats) run off occasionally, so I knew that it was normal," Darryl added. The family has another cat, Zack.
After failing to find Cody, Natalie suspected he had been mailed out in a box from the family-owned medical supplies company - a theory her mother immediately dismissed.
Two days later and 950 miles away, a chiropractor in Woodstock, Ill., opened up a UPS box of neck foams and found the purchases all covered with fur. At the bottom of the box, there was a surprise: 2-year-old Cody, skinny, but alive. The cat had no food, no water, and didn't soil the box for two days.
Cody's tag had his name and his owner's contact information, so the chiropractor called Marie to tell her that her cat had accidentally been shipped to him.
"I said I am so sorry I shipped you my cat," Marie told the chiropractor on the phone.
(Turns out that Marie didn't do the actual shipping, but an employee did.)
She went on to say that she would pick Cody up before she learned how far away he was.
Although scared from the incident, Cody surprisingly acted normal.
"He was himself; he was just a little bit skinny," Natalie said.
From now on Marie and Darryl vow to take Natalie's instincts more seriously.