Shipping mews: Dartmouth cat sneaks into Montreal-bound parcel

Purr-olator returns cat to sender A missing cat was accidentally shipped to Montreal, but naturally he came back. Paul Hollingsworth reports.

Jackie Lake's Dartmouth, N.S., household is always hopping with activity.

“Two cats, two dogs, three kids,” she says.

It can get a little hairy, but last Saturday when she did a head count, someone was missing.

“There was only one cat,” Lake said.

Her cat, Baloo, was missing.

“By lunch time, I assumed he was gone,” she said.

She searched the neighbourhood frantically.

“It was a horrible feeling,” said Lake, who panicked. “A friend of mine made signs at her work. We posted them on poles.”

Lake feared Baloo was long gone, then, the phone rang.

It was Purolator -- calling from Montreal.

“She paused and she said, ‘you didn't ship a cat?’” said Lake, who immediately put two and two together.

Two days earlier, she shipped four boxes of car rims.

“Just one by one, I taped them up and he got in there,” she said.

When no was looking, a tired Baloo snuggled up inside one of the boxes for a catnap.

Unaware, Lake taped it up and shipped off the packages.

Purolator had that package in Montreal within a day.

“My first question was, is he alive? Did I kill my cat?” Lake said.

No chance, Baloo is healthy and happy. When the driver opened the truck, Baloo was running loose because he had clawed his way out of the box.

“He's good,” Lake said. “He's been treated like royalty.”

The cat was handed over to the local SPCA where vets gave him a clean bill of health,

“We were all extremely relieved that Baloo made it to OK to Montreal and that he survived the trip,” said Anita Kapuscinska of the Montreal SPCA.

Baloo will soon be shipped home...free of charge.

“He's actually starting his journey (Friday night),” Kapuscinska said.

That means a reunion is not far off.

“I'm probably going to pick him up and hug him,” said Lake’s daughter Victoria.

And going forward, rule number one in this home: no more shipping cats!

“That was her fault,” Victoria said, pointing to her mom.

“I'm never going to live it down,” Lake said.

The Montreal SPCA has attached a tracker on Baloo, so the next time he goes missing, he'll be easier to find.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Paul Hollingsworth.