Pair Lost During Stop In Lexington
When Nikki Mendelson lost two cats outside the Econo Lodge in Lexington and had to keep traveling without them, she was crushed.
“I was absolutely devestated to have to leave and know that they were still there,” she said.
Mendelson and her partner were moving to Yankton, South Dakota, and stopped in Lexington when their U-Haul broke down in late March. While they were stopped, the crate holding “Cosmo” and “Cowboy” broke open, and the cats escaped. Mendelson searched but was unable to find them, and eventually she had to keep driving west.
But before she left the area, Mendelson got in touch with Furever Friends Lodge based in Buena Vista. The organization finds homes for hundreds of cats annually and funded over 700 spayings and neuterings last year.
Furever Friends’ Nancy Sullivan said Mendelson gave the organization one of the cats’ blankets. Sullivan set the blanket up with some food outside the former Lexington Restaurant, just next door to the Econo Lodge, in hopes that the smell would draw the cats.
“I knew it was just a matter of seeing if they’d show up,” she said.
After about a week, the property owner asked Sullivan to remove the items. But after about three weeks, nearby residents started to report sightings of the two cats.
“They stayed really close in that one little area,” said Furever Friends founder and director Mary Huffman. “It was wonderful that they did that.”
One local resident, Rose Voltz, had started letting the cats into her house and feeding them. Sullivan got in touch with Voltz and set her up with some cat traps.
On April 21, Voltz caught both Cosmo and Cowboy. Huffman brought them back to Furever Friends and cared for them there.
“They were thin. They definitely had lost a lot of weight,” Huffman said. “You could tell the cats were so glad that they were safe.”
Furever Friends paid to have both cats neutered and also funded rabies shots and physical check-ups with the WellPet Group, Huffman said. The price tag came out to around $270 — not including the cost of keeping the cats fed and housed.
To get Cosmo and Cowboy to South Dakota, Huffman contacted I-81 Transports, a volunteer animal transport organization.
Volunteers from I-81 Transports — and one from Furever Friends — drove the cats more than 1,200 miles. The trip was divided into 19 “legs” ranging from 40 to 90 miles. It took two days and included an overnight stop in St. Louis, where one volunteer took the cats into her home.
Cosmo and Cowboy arrived in South Dakota on May 17. Mendelson said she was incredibly grateful to everyone who helped bring them home.
“You never think ... something miraculous like this will happen in your life, but it did,” she said. “I’m so forever thankful.”
