Kevin the Stowaway Cat Found Two Years Later, 2,000 Miles From Home

Kevin the orange tabby cat was temporarily housed at the Thousand Palms Animal Shelter this week, prior to his journey back to South Carolina. Images courtesy of the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

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An agricultural inspector near the Arizona-California border recently got a bit of a surprise when he took a peek inside a U-Haul trailer being towed into the state -- and found a meowing cat inside.

The discovery was also a surprise for the woman towing the trailer, since she doesn’t even own a cat.

But sure enough, Kevin the orange tabby somehow managed to crawl inside the trailer and took a cross-country ride from South Carolina to Riverside County, animal-control officials said this week.

“The orange tabby was very stealth in his travels,” Riverside County Department of Animal Services Spokesman John Welsh said. “He made it all the way to the Arizona-California border without detection.”

Now, local authorities have helped the kitty to make one more voyage-- this one sanctioned, as the kitty was flown back home to his owner on Wednesday, out of Palm Springs International Airport.

“We have handled some pets with crazy back stories, and this is one more for the list,” said Robert Miller, director of Riverside County Animal Services. “The good news is we know the owner, she wants her pet back and we’ll make that happen.”

Kevin was flown back to South Carolina on Wednesday, thanks to donations from the Shelter Transport Animal Rescue Team, the Animal Solutions Konnection Foundation and Riverside County shelter employees.

After the dehydrated Kevin was spotted during a search of the U-Haul trailer, he was taken to the Blythe Animal Shelter, where workers found he had a microchip identifying the owner -- Cheryl Walls of Anderson, South Carolina.

According to Riverside County officials, Walls adopted Kevin from a shelter in June 2013, and one day that fall, she let him go outside. Kevin had been outside before and always returned, but this time he never came home.

“I assumed someone must have picked him up,” Walls said. “Now he has seen more of the country than me.”

– City News Service contributed to this report.